Armada chief lodges police report against PM Anwar, Guan Eng over Yayasan Albukhary

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Wan Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal has urged the police to probe Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and DAP lawmaker Lim Guan Eng over Yayasan Albukhary’s (YAB) tax exemption status.

Speaking to reporters outside Dang Wangi police station, he claimed that Anwar had knowingly misled the Dewan Rakyat by backing the Bagan MP and leaving out key details about the purported revocation of the Islamic charitable organisation’s tax exemption status when the latter was finance minister in the then Pakatan Harapan government.

“PM Anwar’s answer is designed to confuse the Dewan Rakyat.

“LGE (Lim Guan Eng) knows and/or should know that PM Anwar’s answers are lies and done solely to save LGE from being held accountable for revoking YAB’s tax exemption.

“That is why YAB made an appeal after LGE was no longer finance minister. LGE tried to avoid by blaming the IRB,” he said in reference to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

The Perikatan Nasional (PN) MP for Machang then went on to accuse the prime minister of “lying” about how the IRB director-general had rejected the foundation’s request for a tax exemption.

Wan Fayhsal said that Yayasan Albukhary had received tax exemption from 2016 to 2018 during the Datuk Seri Najib Razak administration, but that the IRB had rejected the foundation’s request during the subsequent PH administration, where Lim held the finance minister’s portfolio.

“He stated that the finance minister has no tax exemption authority; only the director-general of the IRB under Section 44 (6) of the Tax Act 1997.

“The prime minister’s statement is a lie because Section 44 (6B) of the Tax Act 1967 states that an appeal over a decision by the IRB director-general can be lodged with the finance minister who is then allowed to determine a reasonable resolution,” he added.

Section 44 (6B) of Tax Act 1967 reads that “any instructions, organisation, appropriate religious authority, body or public university is aggrieved by the decision of the director-general in respect of an application made subsection (6) or (11D), the institution, organisations, appropriate religious authority, body or public university may within 30 days after being informed of the decision, appeal to the minister and the minister may make any decision as he considers it”.

Wan Fayhsal further said that based on that section of the Act, the prime minister had not been truthful about Yayasan Albukhary’s tax exempt status, as cited in Lim’s police report two days ago.

On March 22, Lim had lodged a police report against former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to prevent the latter’s claims about Yayasan Albukhary from being used as campaign fodder during state elections that are expected later this year.

Previously, Lim reminded Muhyiddin that the latter had until the previous day to issue a public apology for his accusations and to withdraw his statements or legal action would be taken against him.

Despite Lim’s repeated warnings, the Pagoh MP has said he would not retract his allegations.

He first warned Muhyiddin on March 4 that he had no qualms taking legal action.

Lim said Muhyiddin had failed to produce evidence to support his allegations.