A TRADER was jailed for six months and ordered to pay a penalty of $202,245 on Friday for making false claims of Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds.

Ong Seow Hsiung, 40, pleaded guilty to seven charges of making false entries in the returns of his business, KH Motor Factors, between February and September last year.

KH deals in wholesale export of vehicle parts to Indonesia.

Investigations showed that Ong had inflated the input tax claims in his GST returns.

Input tax is GST incurred on expenses.

For one year and two months, he deliberately cooked up fictitious amounts when no purchases had been made.

He used the refunds totalling $91,576 for personal expenses and to pay off his credit card debts.

Seven other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Ong could have been fined up to $10,000 and/or jailed for up to seven years on each charge, plus a penalty of treble the amount undercharged.