Koon Yeean or Government department's rubber stamp

Before my scheduled trip to KL last week, our ex-company secretary had been frantically looking for me because of a Form E from Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri addressed to our company, which I am presently liquidating. I was told if I missed the dateline, which was March 31, our company would be fined Rm1,000.

Good job I brought along our company rubber stamp. I was advised that it would be better to hand it in with a photocopy for acknowledgement. For me, being the person responsible, as well as for our company, this acknowledgement by LHDN makes the difference between whether we would be penalized Rm1,000 or not. So easy for our government to make money, just send out forms, even to a company that had never employed anyone and which its liquidation process had started last May! Any miscommunication, FINE!

A brother, who had just retired from a bank, offered to accompany me by LRT just to find out where is this chosen destination of at least hundreds of thousands of Income Tax forms.

According to the self-addressed envelope, we should be looking for Pandan Indah. My brother downloaded from the LHDN website and confirmed that there is an LRT station called Pandan Indah! We actually thought that the building must have been chosen for its proximity to an LRT station. How terribly wrong we were, as we were to find out on Friday! That Thursday’s Star newspaper actually carried a letter of complaint from someone who asked why we had to submit the tax forms only at Pandan Indah which was always congested and I was therefore not actually optimistic.

I stayed over at my brother’s in Taman OUG, and after breakfast, he showed me the place where he used to catch a feeder bus to Seri Petaling station. From there, we took the train to Pandan Indah. We were expecting a high-rise building nearby but none at all. We asked a feeder bus driver and he said we should get off at the next station, Cempaka, where there is a feeder bus that passes MPAJ building. Back we went to the station and we had to wait for the next train as we had just got off.

When we arrived at Cempaka station, again, we were looking for some high-rise buildings within sight, and again, we were disappointed. Even though there were about 10 taxis waiting at the station, my brother who must have had bad experience before, refused to go in one. We waited for the feeder bus and the driver was kind enough to point to us the MPAJ building.

Actually, we used MPAJ building as a landmark only. The tax form showed a Menara C which is next to it. At MPAJ lobby we got direction to it and we had to pass the podium section which was supposed to have shops but all seemed closed and run down. Both the lifts on each end of the block were not working. The cleaner told us to go to the front where there are 3 lifts in operation. When we reached there, we could see people milling around and realized that we could choose either to drop the envelope in the transparent perspex boxes or we could have our duplicate rubber-stamped as acknowledgement. Of course, we chose the latter which was why we took all the trouble.

The journey from Taman OUG, off Jalan Kelang Lama, to Menara C, Pandan Indah, took more than 2 hours! Because my brother had lunch appointment with his ex-colleagues, we took a taxi back to Cempaka station and it costed Rm3.90! As I was given a touch-n-go card, I did not take note of the train fare. The journey involved changing train at Chan Sow Lin station.

The long journey notwithstanding, the question that nagged me till today is, who made the decision to have the LHDN collection center at Menara C, Pandan Indah? It was not even near an LRT station and the nearest station was not even the station called Pandan Indah! Coming out to the main road fronting MPAJ building, there was not a single bus-stop or taxi stop nearby. To cross the road, one has to use the overhead bridge which was 2-storey high and not surprisingly, nobody uses!

Our policy-makers surely need a course in Common Sense before everything else!