‘Pay first, talk later’ tax clause enforced only recently, Guan Eng tells Najib

 

Lim Guan Eng has rebutted Najib Razak’s claim that the new tax clause had existed since the Barisan Nasional days.

PETALING JAYA: The new ‘Pay first, talk later’ clause in the Income Tax Act 1967 was only inserted last year and it did not exist since the Barisan Nasional (BN) days as claimed, says DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

In a rebuttal against Najib Razak’s statement that the clause had been there for a long time, Lim insisted that the former prime minister was “dead wrong on facts and sadly mistaken on the law”.

He pointed out that an amendment to the Finance Act 2020 (Act 831) showed that the section was only approved by Perikatan Nasional in the annual budget and gazetted on Dec 31 last year.

“If Najib’s contention is true that the new Section 103B was there all along since BN days, why should Section 103B be inserted under Section 20 of the Finance Act 2020 (Act 831)?” asked Lim.

The Bagan MP said Najib was “clearly confused” between different tax laws, saying he should come forward and admit he had wrongly accused him of “trying to deceive the people”.

Lim again criticised the new section and questioned why the people should pay for PN’s mistakes.

“If the PN government runs out of funds due to their mismanagement, then government bonds should be issued to raise money, instead of using the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) to squeeze more money out of taxpayers or businesses already hurt by the economic recession,” he said.

Najib had previously mocked Lim’s call for Putrajaya to abolish Section 103B under the Income Tax Act 1967, which requires tax payable to be settled even if the assessment is challenged.

He also said the new section had been around since the BN government, but added that he did not abuse this law during his tenure as prime minister as the approach used by LHDN then was to give leeway to those who had been taxed, to seek justice. - FMT