KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 -- The Customs Department intentionally delayed the processing of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds since the then-Barisan Nasional (BN) government did not have the revenue to pay it back.

This was revealed in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report released yesterday, when former Customs director-general Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy was questioned during a hearing on March 7, and recorded into the Hansard.

He told the committee the department did not expedite the refunding process out of concern that its applicants would question why they did not yet receive their refund money.

"Businesses has been choking, some of them did not get their refund for two years, and this is very, very serious. We already...