Ex-company director jailed for false GST claims

[Kenshin Uesugi]

Jul 29, 2011

Ex-company director jailed for false GST claims

By Khushwant Singh

Suharry Abdullah (above), 34 yrs-ols accused for cheating GST. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

THE director of the now-defunct Republic Beverages was sentenced on Friday to four months' jail, for evading tax by filing false Goods and Services Tax (GST) claims.

Suharry Abdullah, 34, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $140,000, which is three times the amount of tax undercharged from March to August 2008.

The firm, which closed a year later, was fined $40,000 and ordered to pay the similar penalty.

Court documents state that Suharry made false entries in his firm's GST returns from March 2008 to August 2008, resulting in GST refund claims he was not entitled to.

The refunds amounted to about $32,000.

He also created six fictitious invoices when the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) requested for supporting documents.

 

[Ken Masters]

Former director jailed for GST offences
Posted: 29 July 2011 1235 hrs

SINGAPORE: A former company director was sentenced to four months' jail on Friday for Goods and Services Tax (GST) offences.

Suharry Abdullah, who worked at the now-defunct Republic Beverages Company, was also ordered to pay a penalty of some S$140,000 for creating false GST entries and fictitious invoices to defraud the Comptroller of GST.

The company, which stopped operating in 2009, was fined S$40,000 and ordered to pay the same amount of penalty.

Suharry made false entries in his company's GST returns from March 2008 to August 2008, resulting in net GST refund claims which he was not entitled to.

The total amount of false GST claims was about S$32,000.

In addition, Suharry, who's now a taxi driver had also created six fictitious purchase invoices when the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) requested for supporting documents.

IRAS also uncovered that he had forged the six suppliers' invoices in his attempt to mislead the authority into thinking his GST refund claims were genuine.

The total amount of GST involved for the forged invoices is S$20,394.64.

- CNA/ck