The Customs Department and the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) have formalised their partnership to conduct audit operations together, effective from today.

Customs director-general Subromaniam Tholasy and IRB chief executive officer Sabin Samitah signed a standard operating procedure (SOP) for their joint audit programme in the presence of Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah today.

“This SOP lists the criteria for this partnership, like how Customs and the IRB will be able to share information, go on operations and audit (companies) together, rather than go separately.

“The government welcomes this partnership because it saves cost, and this is part of our ‘National Blue Ocean Strategy’.

“The joint programme will start today in the Klang Valley but we will expand it nationwide soon. It will be for all sectors,” Mohd Irwan Serigar (photo) told journalists after the signing ceremony at the Ministry of Finance headquarters in Putrajaya.

The National Blue Ocean Strategy promotes efforts that try to reduce both competition and cost, as opposed to conventional business thinking where competitors fight for market share.

The SOP signing comes more than four years after both departments signed a memorandum of understanding in June 2013.

Mohd Irwan Serigar added that the two departments had already been working together for some time, but the SOP would finalise and formalise certain details of their partnership.

Both the Customs Department and the IRB would continue carrying out their respective operations, but collaborate when the need arises, Mohd Irwan Serigar said, such as when a company evades both taxes and the goods and services tax (GST), .

In the audience were 150 customs officers and 70 IRB officers.

Subromaniam, Mohd Irwan Serigar and Sabin later flagged-off several vehicles, each filled with Customs and IRB officers, at the entrance of the Ministry of Finance building.