KUALA LUMPUR (April 19): The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) said its action in writing to international schools for information about the fee payers is a routine procedure.

The board said the exercise "aims at promoting voluntary tax compliance, reducing the risk of tax leakages and ensuring the tax system is safeguarded".

In a media statement today, IRB confirmed that a letter had been issued to the management of several international schools requesting relevant information.

"The request for such information is pursuant to the provision of Section 80 and Section 81 of the Income Tax Act 1967," it said.

According to an online newsreport today, snapshots of emails from international schools to parents of children studying there had been circulating on social media platforms such as the WhatsApp messaging service.

"The international schools were said to have been approached by IRB for information relating to name of the fee payer, identification number, name of student and total fees paid in 2017," the report said.

International schools could not be reached by theedgemarkets.com at the time of writing.