Ameer, who owns the Mydin hypermarket chain, said while Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng should be commended for being forthright about the reason for the delay, it was crucial that businesses get their money back rather than off-setting the amount against the tax payable for the current year.

“We cannot tell our bankers, our suppliers, our staff and our customers that we have no money. We are also facing challenges due to the freeze on foreign labour, salary increments and higher electricity tariffs,” Ameer told FMT.

Lim recently said the previous administration failed to refund excess income tax and real property gains tax totaling some RM16 billion as of end of May.

He had also revealed that refunds of goods and services tax worth some RM19.4 billion were also not settled.

He has since said that the government would allow those with outstanding tax refunds to apply to off-set the amount against the tax payable for the current year.

Ameer said in the case of Mydin, the government owed the hypermarket chain some RM30 million in tax refunds for the year 2016 and 2017.

He said the money could be used to grow its business or help with its cash flow.

Ameer said the company could rely less on banks if its refunds were paid.

He said it makes more sense for the government to borrow money to pay taxpayers, as the government could borrow money at lower interests compared to businesses.

“If everyone gets back their tax refunds, it is likely that the money goes back into the system because most of the taxpayers are Malaysians and would spend the money here.”

Ameer said while it was unfortunate that the previous administration spent the RM36 billion meant for the taxpayers, with some in the civil service to be blamed, the current government is dutybound to return money owed to taxpayers.