PUTRAJAYA: The government has appointed seven banks to help the Royal Malaysian Customs Department in the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The seven are RHB Islamic Bank Bhd, Malayan Banking Bhd, CIMB Bank Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, Alliance Islamic Bank Bhd and Hong Leong Islamic Banking Bhd.

Customs Department director-general, Datuk Seri Ahmad Khazali, said the GST registrants could use bank counter facilities, cash deposit machines and online banking to make GST payments.

"The banks are not appointed as agents to collect taxes for the department but to provide convenience of making payments. The payments which will be forwarded to the Customs Department account," he told reporters after signing agreements with the seven banks at the Customs Department headquarters here today.

Khazali said the banks had branches nationwide for efficient GST collection.

"The department also welcomes other local and international banks to become our strategic partners in providing more choices for GST registrants to make payments," he said.

Meanwhile, on the anti-GST protests at the Customs Department headquarters in Kelana Jaya on Monday, Khazali said the protestors demanded answers to 106 questions on GST but their real intentions were to show that the department was still not ready to implement it.

"We are ready to implement the GST despite many negative comments. We will answer the 106 questions and our replies will be uploaded onto our official website as soon as possible for all to see," he said.

Khazali said he was disappointed to see more and more 'non-accredited professors' giving inaccurate information about the GST implementation and were confusing the public. - Bernama