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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

LHDN (IRD) Refunds

This is one of those rare moments that I felt happy about our government agencies. The counter service has improved compared with my previous encounter and they are actually putting in more effort to please the customers (citizen of Malaysia).

I had to pay LHDN (Inland Revenue Department) a visit recently to notify them about my new correspondence address. My file was with the PJ office situated at Kelana Jaya. After filling up the change address request details, I took the opportunity to inquire about my account statuses with them. Much to my surprise, I found out that LHDN actually owes me money and the officer encouraged me to submit a refund application. So I did. This was approximately 4 weeks ago and I have already prepared psychologically that I may not hear from them again...at least for another 6 months or more.

Last week, in a typically normal day just as I stepped out of the plane (I was traveling on business to Manila), I've received a SMS from Maxis citing 12 missed calls from the same phone number belonging to the LHDN Petaling Jaya. I quickly phone them back thinking something must be seriously wrong with my 2004 Assessment or they are trying to cuff me in for questioning on possible tax eviction. After passing me around the different departments and officers, finally traced back to the originator of such calls and she just wanted to notify me that the refund application is being processed and they are likely to release the excess credit as soon as they have an authorize signatory. Phew! what a relief, I am not too concern about the refund as the amount was minute but more of the worry that something bad with regard to my tax position with them.

After that incident, I began to visualize the reality of "Malaysia Inc." where all services (public and government) shall eventually be run like a business and customer satisfaction plays a significant role in enhancing co-operation between the general public and the government services provider. It is like a breathe of fresh air in comparison with the previous generation of public services where the mentality adhere to "If you don't ask, you will not get...".

Next, can't wait to see the cheque for refunds come through the post. Not holding my breathe though as skepticism remained within my blood stream.

2 Comments:

  • Well, let us know your luck... A simple statement request at the counter @ last Apr still haven't reach us...
    According to IRB(when I last submitted the BE form), we actually do not need to fill up any form for refund, look like this is not happening... again...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 20/12/05 4:55 pm  

  • Not really true for my case. I have requested a copy of the refund application form.

    The trick is to find out if your Collection files remained in Jln Duta (or other IRD offices). If Assessment and Collection reside in two different IRD offices, you will need to call the right Collection office and get them to start processing. Otherwise, you may have to wait much longer. I have even commented why don't they inform us that this is the required procedure, they just smile and said "system belum kemas kini."

    By Blogger spectrakia, at 21/12/05 12:50 pm  

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