About 25,000 of the more than 437,000 companies registered nationwide under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) are still not sending their payment statements to the Customs Department.

Customs Director-General Datuk T. Subromaniam said apart from this, statements sent by 20 per cent of the remaining companies were found to display dubious tax payment.

He said these companies were among those that would be visited by customs officers in 'Operation CBOS 3.0', to review, inspect, advise, instruct and help make corrections if necessary.

According to him, a survey was also conducted to determine why the companies did not submit the statements; whether it was because they had ceased operations or had moved to another address or due to other reasons.

"This year, we are targeting visiting about 200,000 companies, and about 200,000 more next year...this number will cover most of the overall companies registered for GST in the country," he told reporters after launching the CBOS 3.0 operation in Sarawak at Wisma Customs here today.

Subromaniam said this was the third time the Customs Blue Ocean Strategy (CBOS) was being adopted to improve revenue collection efficiency through the strengthening of cooperation between the state and the customs department. -- Bernama