KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — The High Court here was today told that there was no document to prove that former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had revoked the tax exemption granted to the Albukhary Foundation.
Head of the Tax Section at the Ministry of Finance, Hazlan Abdul Aziz said he could not find any letter issued by Lim stating that the Finance Ministry did not recognise the tax exemption granted by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) between 2018 and 2020 to the foundation,
Hazlan, who is the second defence witness, said this during cross-examination by lawyer Guok Ngek Seong, representing Lim, on the third-day trial of the suit filed by the Bagan Member of Parliament against Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin regarding the cancellation of the Albukhary Foundation’s tax exemption.
Last Monday, Guok in his opening statement, told the court that the tax exemption granted to Al-Bukhary Foundation was revoked during Muhyiddin’s tenure as Prime Minister.
He was referring to a letter signed by Al-Bukhary Foundation chairman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary on Feb 5, 2021, containing the words “baru-baru ini”, which he said, could only mean that the revocation or cancellation of the tax-exemption status happened “recently”.
“The letter from Syed Mokhtar did not directly state that the plaintiff (Lim) or the Pakatan Harapan government was responsible for the cancellation,” said the lawyer.
Based on an appeal letter submitted by Syed Mokhtar, dated Feb 5, 2021, a total of 27 corporate companies under the Albukhary Foundation were granted additional assessment tax exemptions between April 2016 and March 2018.
The letter stated that the IRB then decided not to recognise the approval letters issued by the Ministry of Finance during the period as tax credits had been used by the companies involved in previous years.
The letter also stated that the additional assessment tax was imposed following the withdrawal of the approval letters, causing the foundation to bear an additional tax liability of RM426.39 million.
According to the letter, the foundation was appealing against the cancellation of the tax exemption on the 27 corporate companies under the foundation.
Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain then set Sept 2 for submission.
On March 27 last year, Lim filed a lawsuit against Muhyiddin for allegedly issuing three defamatory statements on Facebook over the tax exemption issue on March 9, 11 and 12, 2023.
Reports on the matter were then published by several newspapers and news portals.
The former Penang chief minister also claimed that the slanderous statements also inferred that he had abused his position and power by authorising or ordering the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to impose taxes and penalties on the charitable foundation, when it should not be taxed. — Bernama
