SINGAPORE - A BUSINESSMAN pleaded guilty on Friday to making false entries in his Goods and Services Tax returns and failing to keep records.

Png Yeow Leng, 35, admitted not keeping business and accounting records as well as tax invoices which he ought to have done for at least seven years.

A former owner of Dlog Electronics Trading, he has since ceased his wholesale business of electronic components, office machines and equipment.

He admitted to three charges of making false entries in his returns which resulted in the undercharging of tax amounting to a total of $31,640 and to three offences of failing to keep records between 2004 and 2006.

A court heard that Png had inflated the value of standard-rated supplies, zero-related supplies and taxable purchases in his GST returns for the 2004 to 2005 accounting periods to get refunds which he was not entitled to.

Standard-rated supplies refer to goods subject to the 7 per cent GST, while zero-related ones are goods exported with no GST levied.

An Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) prosecutor said he inflated the value of taxable purchases to increase his input tax claim. Input tax refers to purchases made and GST is paid.

To conceal this, he also inflated the total value of supplies.

When he was asked in March 2006 to submit Dlog's listings from July 2004 to June 2005, he submitted a listing with fictitious transactions.

The court heard that he had 'plucked from thin air' figures used for the fictitious purchase entries as well as bogus sales in the standard-rated supplies entries.

Before Iras officers could visit the company premises at Genting Lane, he closed down the company in June 2006.

The prosecution pressed for a deterrent sentence.

Png can be fined up to $10,000 or jailed for up to seven years or both for the tax evasion offences. The penalty to be imposed will be three times the total tax undercharged which works out to $94,918.

Two other charges will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced on Feb 22 by District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan. Png is now out on $5,000 bail.