PUTRAJAYA (March 1): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim hopes the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) would be able to collect more revenue than the board's projection of RM197 billion this year.

He said the IRB had succeeded in setting a new record in tax collection last year of RM183.34 billion, which was RM7.8 billion or 4.49% more than the total collected the year before.

Malaysia, however, still has a low tax base which is around 11.2% of its gross domestic product, compared to other neighbouring countries such as Singapore at 12.6% and Thailand 16.4%, he added.

He said he does not deny that the steps taken by the IRB had succeeded in increasing the country's revenue but, at the same time, Anwar urged companies and individuals to step forward and pay their taxes.

“The number of companies paying tax is still low, around 435,000 companies compared to 1.5 million registered companies in Malaysia.

“This means that less than 29% of registered companies pay tax," he said at the 28th Revenue Day Celebration here on Friday.

As of Dec 31, 2023, the number of individual taxpayers stood at 5.7 million, with collection revenue coming in at RM40.96 billion. For companies, it was 539,113, with collection revenue coming in at RM98.77 billion.

Anwar said the increase in tax collection by the IRB and the Customs Department has helped to improve the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (Sara) programme which has doubled its payment as the number of recipients jumped to 700,000 compared to 210,000 the year before.

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