Court dismisses Shafee’s bid to stay IRB suit proceedings


The Kuala Lumpur High Court dismisses Muhammad Shafee Abdullah’s application to stay the proceedings of a suit filed against him by the Inland Revenue Board for failing to pay income tax arrears amounting to RM9.41 million. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, September 28, 2022.

THE Kuala Lumpur High Court today dismissed an application by lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to stay the proceedings of a suit filed against him by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for failing to pay income tax arrears amounting to RM9.41 million.

Shafee had applied to stay the proceedings pending the disposal of his appeal to the Special Commissioners of Income Tax of Malaysia.

His lawyer, Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee, said judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain dismissed the application with cost of RM5,000 to be paid to IRB.

“The court rejected the applicant’s (Shafee) argument that there were special circumstances to stay the proceedings. The court fixed October 6 for the case management to set the hearing date,” he said when contacted by reporters after the online proceedings today.

Senior revenue counsel Al-Hummidallah Idrus, who represented IRB, when contacted, confirmed the matter.

At today’s proceedings, Shafee was also represented by lawyers Rajan Navaratnam and Wee Yeong Kang while IRB was also represented by senior revenue counsel Norhisham Ahmad and Muhammad Faqrol Syazreen Mohd Ghause.

Shafee, 70, filed the application on November 3 last year, which, among others, sought an order for the proceedings to be temporarily suspended pending the outcome of an application filed by former prime minister Najib Razak and his son, Mohd Nazifuddin, regarding the payment of income tax, amounting to RM1.69 billion and RM37.6 million respectively, to IRB, before the Federal Court.

Among the grounds cited by Shafee was that he had filed a notice of appeal against the notices on additional assessment for the assessment years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, to IRB on June 27, 2019, apart from the existence of special circumstances that warrant the stay.

On September 27 last year, IRB applied for its suit against Shafee, which was filed on May 6, to be decided through summary judgment, on the grounds that the defendant had failed to pay the income tax arrears amounting to RM9,414,708.32 within the stipulated time.

Shafee is also facing two charges of receiving RM9.5 million in proceeds from unlawful activities from Najib, and two charges of making false declarations to IRB. – Bernama, September 28, 2022.


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