Guan Eng revoked Yayasan Al-Bukhary's tax exemption, says Muhyiddin

PETALING JAYA: The finance minister who decided to reapply taxation and place a 45% penalty tax on Yayasan Al-Bukhary in 2018 was Lim Guan Eng, says Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The former prime minister said that the recent statement by Lim with regard to the tax exemption on Yayasan Al-Bukhary does not respond exactly to what he had said on Thursday (March 9).

In a statement on Saturday (March 11), Muhyiddin stated that Yayasan Al-Bukhary had appealed to him as the eighth prime minister to be exempted from taxes for works related to Islamic charities.

"I received a letter of appeal from Yayasan Al-Bukhary when I was the prime minister. I was told the foundation received a tax exemption for works related to Islamic charity deeds. The tax exemption was approved under Section 127 (3A) Income Tax Act 1967," he said.

The Perikatan Nasional chairman added that after Pakatan Harapan took over the Federal Government, the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN) refused to apply the exemption and imposed taxes once again with a 45% penalty tax on Yayasan Al-Bukhary.

"Lim was the finance minister who was responsible for LHDN then. Therefore, he was responsible for the decision to reapply the taxes and penalty tax on Yayasan Al-Bukhary which is an organisation that does Islamic charity deeds," said Muhyiddin.

He was replying to a comment by Lim on Friday (March 10) that Muhyiddin proved that he was the one who had issued the instructions for LHDN to revoke the exemption on Yayasan Al-Bukhary.

On Thursday (March 9), Muhyiddin stated that he was questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the tax exemption appeal by Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary for his Yayasan Al-Bukhary charity.

Muhyidin had then said that he did not abuse his power as the prime minister and did not receive any personal donation from Syed Mokhtar, as the latter had donated directly to the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia fund account.

On Friday, Muhyiddin was charged with four counts of abuse of power for using his position as the then PM when his party allegedly obtained gratification of RM232.5mil in bribes from corporate entities.

He also faces two more charges of money laundering, wherein his party received RM195mil out of the total sum from illegal activities.

According to the charges, the money was deposited into Bersatu’s bank accounts in bribes from three companies and an individual.

The companies are Bukhary Equity Sdn Bhd, Nepturis Sdn Bhd, and Mamfor Sdn Bhd, while the individual is one Datuk Azman Yusoff.

For the remaining two charges, he was charged with receiving proceeds from illegal activities amounting to RM195mil out of the RM232.5mil from Bukhary Equity.