KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 30): The High Court here today recorded a consent judgement between the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB) and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) for the latter to commence judicial review to challenge the IRB’s RM3.98 billion tax claim on the government-controlled utility for assessment years 2015, 2016 and 2017.
High Court Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid recorded the consent judgement for the case this afternoon. Ahmad Kamal also recorded the stay granted to TNB on further legal proceedings by IRB against TNB.
A judge issues a consent judgment, which aims at ending a litigation with a judgment that is enforceable following an agreement between parties in a lawsuit.
In the IRB-TNB case, both parties had among others agreed on the revocation of the requirement for TNB to pay a RM1.2 billion penalty on the tax assessment.
Ahmad Kamal had subsequently allowed a case management to hear the merits of the judicial review.
He said today the case management date will be fixed before the High Court deputy registrar on Jan 25, 2021.
Following that, a trial date is expected to be fixed, according to him.
“The court allowed and recorded the consent order as agreed and marked the consent order as per the enclosure,” Ahmad Kamal said.
TNB's lawyers claimed the High Court's decision today to allow the consent judgement in the IRB-TNB case is a landmark decision as it is the first time parties in a lawsuit agree on a consent judgement for a tax dispute to be heard based on full merit.
TNB was represented by lawyers Rosli Dahlan and S Saravana Kumar while the IRB’s lawyers included Norhisham Ahmad and Mohammad Daniel Ahmad.
TNB has also received the IRB’s notice of additional tax assessment for the 2018 assessment year.
On July 14, 2020, it was reported that TNB said it had received the notice of additional assessment for 2018 amounting to RM1.81 billion from the IRB.
News reports quoting TNB's Bursa Malaysia filing then reported that the group said it received the notice on July 13, 2020.
On Dec 18, 2020, TNB said in a Bursa filing that the High Court had vacated the hearing date fixed for the stay application, which was initially fixed on Dec 17, 2020.
TNB said the High Court had also fixed a new hearing date for the 2018 tax assessment case on Feb 16, 2021.
"In the meantime, the High Court has granted an interim stay of all further proceedings including the enforcement of the [IRB's] notice until the hearing on Feb 16, 2021.
"We refer to the issuance of notice of additional assessment dated July 13, 2020 for the year of assessment 2018 by the IRB and our announcements dated July 14, 2020, July 21, 2020, Aug 10, 2020, Sept 21, 2020, Sept 30, 2020 and Oct 19, 2020,” TNB said.
On Bursa today, TNB’s share price closed down six sen or 0.57% at RM10.52 for a market capitalisation of about RM59.86 billion.
TNB’s number of issued shares stood at 5.69 billion units.