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Technology

Malaysia Gets Clearer Picture of Taxpayers

24 November 2009

Malaysia’s Inland Revenue Board (IRB) needed to restructure. It was taking the board two weeks to prepare complex reports; the board couldn’t drill down into data for added details, it struggled to complete complex reports, and it couldn’t simulate how a proposed tax change would impact revenue. The IRB also didn’t have a solution that could handle all of the data it is able to access…

SAS Business Intelligence has helped Malaysia’s Inland Revenue Board (IRB), the tax revenue collecting board for Malaysia, drastically reduce the time it takes to create analysis reports on assessment and collections. The result: The board is now able to perform faster and better analysis on tax collections, as well as understand the revenue impact of proposed tax changes.

The IRB is one of the main revenue collecting agencies of Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance. It is responsible for administering the income, petroleum income and real property gains taxes among other revenue sources. It simulates the impact of proposed tax changes, helps with annual budgeting and provides tax gap analysis.

Before using SAS, it took the board two weeks to prepare complex reports; the board couldn’t drill down into data for added details, it struggled to complete complex reports, and it couldn’t simulate how a proposed tax change would impact revenue. The IRB also didn’t have a solution that could handle all of the data it is able to access.

The board was unable to react quickly to changing requirements from the users. And it couldn’t get data in the required format nor access that data to perform ad-hoc query and analysis. “Because it took us so long to produce complex reports, our functions were very limited. We were unable to respond to requests from stakeholders, resulting at times in management not being able to make timely decisions,’’ says Puan Mariam Bt Mohd, Director of IRB’s IT Department.

Faster reporting, greater reliability
With SAS, the board can handle complex reporting in as few as three days. Formerly, that work took two weeks. Simpler reports that used to take 11 hours to produce are now completed in three hours. The board can use information gathered from numerous sources to get a picture of taxpayers who might be under-reporting or learn why those who overpaid didn’t claim a refund.

“The reports are more reliable because we are able to do drill-downs and to slice and dice information. SAS has simplified our analysis work tremendously,’’ says Puan Mariam.

IRB can more easily check for data inconsistencies – something that was difficult to do with the previous data warehouse.

Accurate, timely information is critical. With SAS, the board has cleared its backlog; and departments like the Ministry of Finance, the Economic Planning Unit and the Central Bank appreciate the accuracy of the information IRB produces.

“If it takes too long to provide information, we can’t respond to our stakeholder’s requests. We are using SAS to calculate tax-rate impacts on rebates, reliefs and income to the government as well as the taxpayer,’’ Puan Mariam says.

IRB plans to expand its use of SAS and encourage users to take advantage of self-service reporting features. It also wants to establish a business intelligence competency center. “SAS provides us with a very quick, detailed solution that helps us to understand and explain the revenue impact of proposed tax changes,’’ Puan Mariam says.

For more case studies of SAS’s work with the public sector in Asia please visit: http://www.sas.com/success

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