THE Federal Court today granted a stay in the RM1.69 billion tax judgement against former prime minister Najib Razak and his son Mohd Nazifuddin.

A three-person Federal Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat unanimously allowed the stay application, following no objection raised by the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) legal representative, senior federal counsel Al-Hummidallah Idrus.

The other judges who sat with Tengku Maimun were Mary Lim and Rhodzariah Bujang.

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.

On July 22, 2020, the High Court entered the summary judgment against Najib and required him to pay RM1.69 billion.

The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal on October 21 last year, but the court granted a stay of the summary judgment decision requiring him to pay the tax.

Earlier this year, the Federal Court granted both defendants leave to appeal to set aside the judgment.

The challenge mounted by Najib relates to Section 106(3) of the Income Tax Act 1967 that the court shall not entertain any plea that the amount of tax sought to be recovered is excessive, incorrectly assessed, under appeal or incorrectly increased.

Section 106(3) is considered an ouster clause as it denies the court any jurisdiction to hear matters concerning income tax calculation, appeals or payment.

In April last year, the IRB issued a bankruptcy notice to Najib for failure to settle outstanding taxes. – September 21, 2022.