KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 8): Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) confirmed on Tuesday (Feb 8) that the High Court here had allowed with cost the government controlled utility's judicial review application to set aside or invalidate the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia's (IRB) notice of additional assessment for tax amounting to RM1.81 billion for 2018.
"The High Court agreed with the submission of TNB’s legal counsel that TNB is in the business of manufacturing electricity and as such, TNB is entitled to claim reinvestment allowance on the capital expenditure which was incurred in the year of assessment of 2018 in the course of expanding, modernising and automating its business," TNB said.
According to TNB, the IRB’s notice of additional assessment for the RM1.81 billion tax claim was dated July 13, 2020.
TNB had on July 14, 2020 initially announced to Bursa the IRB’s notice of additional assessment.
TNB said then: "This notice is similar in nature with the notices received in the past years, which are presently pending in court and TNB has obtained an interim stay order against the payment of the disputed taxes.
"Based on the legal advice obtained from our tax solicitors, TNB is of the view that it has a good basis in law to contend that the assessments were erroneously raised by the IRB. Accordingly and as before, TNB will be appealing against the said notice the soonest."
At Bursa on Tuesday, TNB's share price closed down three sen or 0.33% at RM9.14, valuing the group at about RM52.19 billion.
TNB has 5.71 billion issued shares.