KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 — Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng today urged the Finance Ministry to assure those who had participated in the Special Programme for Voluntary Disclosure (SPVD) will not be subjected to “arbitrary and high-handed” freezing of their bank accounts.

The former finance minister said this was to make sure the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) kept to its promise to 286,428 participants that their taxes before the year 2018 would not be investigated.

“Whilst IRB has denied allegations of a U-turn, there should be no return to the bad old days of the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, of ‘shaming’ taxpayers by raiding their offices with hordes of officers and freezing their bank accounts,” said Lim in a statement today.

Under the SVDP initiated by the Pakatan Harapan government in 2018, taxpayers were subjected to a lower penalty rate of 10 to 15 per cent compared to the 45 to 300 per cent stipulated under the Income Tax Act 1967.

The promise of lower penalty and amnesty from future tax assessment for years involved with the programme, had attracted participants to cough up a total of RM 7.877 billion.

However, earlier this week, the Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia (CTIM) claimed that the IRB had issued letters to some SVPD participants demanding taxes due before 2018.

The IRB yesterday denied the allegations.

“There is no reason to investigate past taxes of 2018 and before for those participating in the tax amnesty programme, unless they are involved in illegal or criminal such as drugs, prostitution or illegal gambling and corruption,” said Lim.

Lim also said that the IRB was only allowed to make agreements with participants of the SVPD, after conducting a “comprehensive assessment” of the latter’s taxes.