THE Penang High Court granted the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) application for a summary judgment to recover RM1.8 billion in tax arrears from Larry Low Hock Peng, father of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low).

A summary judgment is when a court decides a case without hearing the testimony of witnesses.

Judge Abd Majid Hamzah, who delivered the decision yesterday, allowed the application and ordered Hock Peng to pay costs of RM3,000.

The court also rejected Hock Peng’s application to strike the suit filed by the government through the IRB.

Senior revenue counsels Norhisham Ahmad Norhisham Ahmad, Al-Hummidallah Idrus dan Muhammad Aiman Abdullah appeared for IRB, while Hock Peng was represented by lawyers Yatiswara Ramachandran, Francis Tan and Oh Chong Ghee.

On March 24, 2021, the government as the plaintiff filed an application for a summary judgement to be entered against Hock Peng as the defendant in its suit to recover RM1,884,098,662.55 with interest at 5% per annum from the date of the judgment (February 1) to the date of full realisation.

The application was made on the grounds that, among others, the tax arrears and tax increases imposed under the provisions of the Income Tax Act 1967 can be recovered as taxes due and payable.

Hock Peng filed an application to strike the suit on March 22, 2021, saying, among others, that the assessment years 2011 and 2012, as well as the additional assessments for 2013 and 2014, were invalid because they were made more than five years from the year of assessment on the income claimed to have been accrued without complying with section 91(3) of the Income Tax Act 1967.

The government, which filed the suit on January 19, 2021, claimed that Hock Peng had failed to pay the owing income tax for the assessment years 2011, 2012 and the additional assessment years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018, including the increases, amounting to RM1,884,098,662.55. 

On October 18 last year, the Penang High Court allowed the IRB’s application for a summary judgment to recover RM1.05 billion in tax arrears from Taek Jho. – Bernama, February 2, 2023.