KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has set a new date to hear the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) application for a summary judgment against former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak over payment of RM1.69 billion in income tax.
Najib’s counsel Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee said the hearing had been fixed for today, but the date has been vacated to May 5 following the extension of the Movement Control Order (MCO) by the government.
“The hearing will be heard at 2.30 pm before Judge Datuk Ahmad Bache, ” he told Bernama via Whatsapp message today.
A summary judgment is where a court decides a case without hearing the testimony of witnesses.
On Feb 28, the court dismissed Najib’s application for a stay of proceedings of IRB’s suit seeking him to pay RM1.69 billion in income tax, pending an appeal on the tax assessment to IRB.
On Aug 8, last year, Najib filed an application for a stay of proceedings of the IRB’s suit.
However, the IRB, in its supporting affidavit, said that the former prime minister still had to pay the total amount of RM1.69 billion even if he had filed an appeal against the tax assessment.
IRB Monitoring Unit assistant director Hisyamuddin Mohd Hassan, in his supporting affidavit, said that according to Section 103 of the Income Tax Act 1967, all the assessed tax shall be due and payable on the day the notice of assessment is served, whether or not the person appeals against the assessment.
On June 25, last year, the government through the IRB filed the suit against the Pekan MP, seeking him to pay RM1.69 billion in unpaid tax with interest at five per cent a year from the date of judgment, as well as costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.
— BERNAMA
