KUALA LUMPUR: The government filed a bankruptcy notice against former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for failing to pay income tax amounting to RM1.69bil as ruled by the High Court in July last year.
According to documents filed in court, the government, through the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), filed the notice in the High Court here on Feb 4 against Najib as a debtor, Bernama reported.
Based on the notice, Najib has to pay RM1.69bil with a 5% interest rate per annum on the total balance from July 22, 2020 (date of High Court's decision) to Feb 4, 2021, and the total payable amount as of the latter date was RM1,738,804,204.16.
On July 22 last year, the High Court ruled that Najib had to pay LHDN RM1.69bil in additional tax and penalties for the period 2011 to 2017, after allowing the LHDN's application to enter a summary judgement against the former.
A summary judgement is when the court decides a particular case summarily, without calling witnesses to testify in a trial, the national news agency noted.
Lawyer Muhammad Farhan Muhammad Shafee, who represented Najib, told Bernama the court had set May 5 for management of the case.
Najib has filed an appeal against the High Court's decision in the Court of Appeal, which will hear the case on June 16.
Pursuant to Section 103 (2) of the Income Tax Act 1967 (ITA), a person ordered to pay the assessment has to settle the payment to LHDN even if an appeal has been filed.
The Civil High Court today set June 11 to hear Najib's application for a stay on the High Court order, according to the Bernama report.
Najib, in a Facebook post yesterday, confirmed he has been served with a bankruptcy notice served by LHDN.
However, the Pekan MP has maintained his innocence, claiming the tax case that he is facing and the bankruptcy notice were brought against him by the former Pakatan Harapan administration, and then continued by Perikatan Nasional in a move to damage his political career.
Najib said among the effects of the bankruptcy notice is that he would lose his status as Pekan MP and no longer qualify to stand in party elections or the general election.
“How did it happen? It involved a total of RM3bil put into an account using the name of DSN, whereby the account was created to receive donations (as disclosed in court), and RM642mil transferred directly from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance (and this was also proven in court).
“The hugely popular RM2.6bil (which was actually RM2bil) was returned four months later, ” he said in the post, adding he never failed to pay his income taxes when he was the prime minister.
He added all of the money funnelled into the DSN special account had already been used for charitable purposes, including to help flood victims and build mosques all over the nation.
He also questioned why although the donations were returned to the sender after four months, it was still counted as personal income and taxed as well as charged penalty.
Apart from losing his status as Pekan MP and needing a by-election to be called, Najib said the bankruptcy notice meant he will no longer be eligible to stand in party elections and the general election.
He added he would also stand to lose all of his savings collected while he was serving in the government and he will no longer have money to pay lawyer fees.
Najib also claimed he will not get back his belongings and money seized even if he were to win the case.
