KUALA LUMPUR (July 8): The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB)'s special voluntary disclosure programme (SVDP) has as at June 23 this year induced 486,360 taxpayers to reveal their undeclared income to the government, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah told the Parliament today the government will announce the total tax collection under the SVDP by end of this year.

"We hope more will participate in the SVDP now, because the penalty is significantly lower, and after the programme expires we believe with the automatic exchange of information initiative by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), it will be more effective for us to detect offshore banking activities, so we urge people who have not made proper declaration to do it now, before the authorities take a more aggressive measure against them," he said.

Without the SVDP, penalty against undeclared income can go up to 300% on the amount of tax payable versus the 10% and 15% under the tax amnesty programme, according to the MoF.