There is no document to prove that Guan Eng canceled the Albukhary Foundation’s tax exemption – Witness

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here was told today that there is no document showing that Lim Guan Eng canceled the tax exemption for the Albukhary Foundation during his tenure as Finance Minister.

Head of the Taxation Section at the Ministry of Finance, Hazlan Abdul Aziz, said he could not find any letter issued by Lim stating that the ministry did not recognize tax exemptions for charitable foundations between 2018 and 2020.

Hazlan, who was subpoenaed to testify by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, said this during cross-examination by lawyer Guok Ngek Seong representing Lim on the third day of the trial of his suit against the Bersatu President regarding the cancellation of Yayasan Albukhary’s tax exemption.

Last Monday, Guok, in his opening statement, said the issue of canceling the tax exemption for the Albukhary Foundation was raised when Muhyiddin held the position of Prime Minister.
According to Guok, referring to the appeal letter signed by Yayasan Albukhary Chairman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary on February 5, 2021, the word ‘recently’ in the letter means that the cancellation or cancellation of the tax exemption status happened recently.

“The letter from Syed Mokhtar does not directly state that the plaintiff or the Pakatan Harapan Government is the person responsible for the cancellation,” he said.
Based on Syed Mokhtar’s appeal letter dated February 5, 2021, a total of 27 corporate companies under the Albukhary Foundation were granted additional assessment tax exemptions between April 2016 and March 2018.

The letter stated that the IRB then made a decision not to recognize the Ministry of Finance’s approval letters during the period in question as the tax credit had been used by the company involved in previous years.

The letter also states that the additional assessment tax imposed as a result of the Ministry of Finance withdrawing the recognition of the approval letters involved caused the foundation to bear an additional tax liability of RM426.39 million.

According to the letter, Yayasan Albukhary submitted an appeal regarding the cancellation of the tax exemption for 27 corporate companies under its umbrella.

Judicial Commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain then set September 12 for submissions after two defendant witnesses, including Muhyiddin, and three plaintiff witnesses, including Lim, finished testifying.

On March 27 last year, Lim filed a lawsuit against Muhyiddin for allegedly issuing three defamatory statements on Facebook involving him regarding the tax exemption issue on March 9, 11, and 12, 2023.

Reports on the matter were later published by several newspapers and news portals.

The former Chief Minister of Penang also claimed that the defamatory statement also meant that he abused his position and power by authorizing or ordering the IRB to impose taxes and penalties on the Albukhary Foundation when it should not be taxed.