KUALA LUMPUR (July 30): The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has imposed travel bans on more than 16,800 individuals in January to May this year due to RM1.2 billion in unpaid taxes.

The move is part of the IRB's efforts to strengthen tax compliance and enforcement, ensuring assessments are collected and do not become outstanding receivables.

This update was included in the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) follow-up report released on Wednesday on tax collection and receivables, which recommended a series of measures to improve the IRB's operational efficiency and boost government revenue.

The PAC highlighted that outstanding tax receivables stood at RM34.59 billion in 2023, a 14.3% reduction from RM40.39 billion in 2022, largely due to tax write-offs and downward reassessments during the year. The findings were drawn from the Auditor General’s Report 3/2024 on the Federal Government’s 2023 Financial Statements.

The committee outlined five main recommendations for the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and its tax collection agency.

While progress has been made in strengthening tax administration, the government must ensure timely implementation of its recommendations to further reduce outstanding receivables, improve collection efficiency, and safeguard public finances, the PAC said. 

These include intensifying enforcement to ensure assessed taxes are collected promptly, improving audit and assessment processes to reduce appeals, tightening laws to curb tax leakage and fraud, updating the status of nationwide e-invoicing implementation, and enhancing public education on tax compliance — particularly for businesses and individuals in the growing digital economy.

In response, the IRB noted that several measures are already underway, including operational sweeps to trace delinquent taxpayers, instalment schemes for overdue payments, automated issuance of tax arrears notices, and the imposition of travel restrictions on non-compliant taxpayers.

On the e-invoicing initiative, the IRB reported that 283 million e-invoices had been transmitted and validated since its launch in August 2024, involving nearly 29,000 taxpayers. A dedicated MyInvois e-POS system was also introduced in March 2025 to help micro, small and medium enterprises adopt the system at no cost.

The PAC further urged the IRB to step up public awareness campaigns, particularly targeting the digital economy sector, by conducting outreach programmes, collaborating with e-commerce platforms, and publishing regular guidance materials to encourage voluntary compliance.

The PAC follow-up session was held on May 21, 2025, chaired by its deputy chair Teresa Kok (Pakatan Harapan-Seputeh), with representatives of the MOF and IRB presenting updates to the committee.

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