KUALA LUMPUR (June 21): Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd has maintained its position that the company is not liable to pay the additional RM96.82 million of income taxes slapped on the company by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

"We have always maintained that we are not wrong, and that is the correct position. This is in consultation with our tax agents, auditors and solicitors. We are taking on the grounds of principle that we are not liable for those taxes," its chairman Ng Eng Kiat told reporters after the company's annual general meeting here today.

Ng — appointed in May in replacement of the late chairman Datuk Abdullah Mohd Yusof — said court hearing on the legal matter has been deferred to July, and an appeal to the Special Commissioners of Income Tax has been filed.

"They have raised an assessment. Not paying by a certain time will result in penalties, where they can take action and wind up the company or go after the board of directors," said Ng.

"But we have applied to the Court of Appeal [against the High Court's May decision] to get a stay, which is why the hearing has been deferred," he said.

In December 2017, Aeon Credit announced the IRB has slapped the company with a RM96.82 million bill for additional income taxes with penalties for the years of assessment of 2010 to 2016. It subsequently filed for an appeal.

And on May 8, it announced challenging the High Court's decision for not granting its application for a stay of the notices of the additional assessment.

Due to the technicalities under the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia Act, Ng added, the company's application for adjudication will take some time but is ongoing.

At noon break, shares in Aeon Credit were 10 sen lower at RM14.30, valuing it at a market capitalisation of RM3.55 billion.