FORMER prime minister Najib Razak has lodged a police report against the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) over the RM1.69 billion tax suit brought against him, claiming that it was politically motivated.

Najib said he had made the police report after several IRB officers told him they were instructed by their higher-ups to impose the penalty as they were directed by certain politicians.

“After investigating the tax case three times and finding that I had not done anything wrong according to the law, IRB officers were instructed to impose these taxes on me by politicians,” he wrote in the Facebook posting.

The Pekan MP said he had received this information from IRB officers who told him that the case had been investigated three times since 2008 and found that he had not done anything that would warrant the tax penalty.

“It is worrying that these instructions (to bring the suit) came from politicians and not based on the facts of the investigation and the law.

“This has not only wasted my time but shows that there is an abuse of power,” he added.

The police report was lodged at the Sentul police station yesterday afternoon.

In the report, Najib said that the IRB and its officers were in breach of Sections 167, 192, 196 and 197 of the Penal Code as well as Section 23 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act.

“I would like to invite the auditors to check my tax files, which I have already presented to the court.

“I have also written to the MACC to give them permission to make my tax files public to interested parties, so they can see for themselves that the tax penalty imposed on me doesn’t make sense and was in contradiction of the law.”

The government had filed the suit against Najib in June 2019, and on July 22, 2020, Najib was ordered by the court to pay the IRB RM1.69 billion in unpaid taxes for the years 2011 to 2017.

Najib reportedly did not declare about RM4 billion during this period, including the RM2.6 billion, which US investigators claim originated from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Fund.

In April this year, the IRB issued a bankruptcy notice to Najib for failure to settle outstanding taxes.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court has set December 7 to hear Najib’s application to strike out the bankruptcy notice issued against him. – September 9, 2021.