Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (April 6): The High Court has issued a bankruptcy notice against Datuk Seri Najib Razak following a request from the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) over taxes the former prime minister owes to the government.

The notice came while Najib and his two children, Datuk Mohd Nizar Najib and Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, are appealing against the High Court's summary judgements for IRB to recover from them a combined RM1.74 billion in income tax arrears from 2011 to 2017.

Court documents sighted by theedgemarkets.com showed that a bankruptcy notice was issued by the High Court to the former prime minister on Feb 4, following a request by the IRB on the same date.

The request was filed seven months after the High Court's decision to issue a summary judgement ordering Najib to make the payment for RM1.69 billion claimed by the IRB. That amount rose to RM1.74 billion for Najib alone, according to the latest court documents, following the 5% annual interest imposed, in addition to RM15,000 in costs awarded to IRB at the time.

The High Court has set May 5, 2021 for case management under the bankruptcy proceedings before Justice Ida Rahayu Sharif.

Separately, Najib and his two children's appeal will be heard in the Court of Appeal on June 16, 2021.

His daughter, Nooryana Najwa Najib, will also likely go to trial to contest IRB's claim of RM10.3 million in unpaid taxes.

A bankruptcy declaration, if approved, will disqualify Najib from being a member of Parliament, in accordance with Article 48 of the Federal Constitution.

IRB filed the claim against Najib in 2019, after the tax authority concluded that the former premier did not declare taxable incomes of almost RM4 billion for the period — including the RM2.6 billion which went into his personal bank account and which he consistently claimed was a personal donation from a member of the Saudi royal family.

Najib, in a Facebook post, has reiterated that he was being wrongly persecuted, and claimed that he was in discussion with the IRB on the tax issue, but that the negotiations came to a halt last week.

"While as prime minister, I have always paid my income tax without fail. But this cruel tax of RM1.74 billion represents unreasonable additional assessment and penalty," he said.

"Before this, the IRB has issued a statement that political donation is not tax deductible," he added.

Edited ByTan Choe Choe
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