A total of 81,000 companies out of 240,000 companies registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) under the second group for the three-month taxable period have still not filed their GST statements or GST-03.

Royal Malaysian Customs Department (Customs) Director-General, Datuk Seri Khazali Ahmad, said the companies were given until this Friday to file their statements at the department's GST offices nationwide.

"I'm appealing to the companies that have not filed their GST statements to do so within the three-day period to avoid them from facing difficulties," he said to reporters after launching the 16th national level Customs Innovative and Creative Convention here, today.

Khazali said about 98 per cent out of 70,000 registered companies under the first group for the one-month taxable period had all filed their GST-03 statements.

This had shown that the GST-registered companies had given good cooperation to ensure that the tax could be collected by the government, he said.

Companies that are facing difficulties in filing their GST statements or do not understand the process to file their statements are urged to go to the nearest Customs GST offices to get assistance.

"We will also extend the operating hours at our GST offices over the three days to facilitate the companies to file their GST returns," he said.