Court dismisses Najib's son Nazifuddin's stay application in RM37.6m IRB suit

KUALA LUMPUR (March 2): The High Court here has dismissed the application from Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib (pictured), the son of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, for a stay of proceedings in the Inland Revenue Board's suit against him to recover RM37.6 million in unpaid taxes.

On Jan 20, Mohd Nazifuddin applied for the stay on IRB's application to obtain a summary judgement against him for allegedly not paying the said amount in taxes.

A summary judgement under Order 14 of Rules of Court 2012 is intended to enable the suing party to expedite the recovery of a debt allegedly owed, without having to go through a full trial.

Representing Mohd Nazifuddin today were lawyers Muhammad Farhan Shafee and Wee Yeong Kang, while Nor Asmah Adam appeared on behalf of the IRB.

After meeting with High Court judge Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim in chambers, Muhammad Farhan told reporters that the next date for hearing on the matter has been set on April 28.

"The judge refused the stay application as there were no special circumstances to warrant a stay of proceedings right now. It was a short oral judgement.

"We will have to consult our client as to what the next course of action will be — whether it is to appeal or to go for trial," he said.

It was previously reported last October that the IRB wanted to obtain a summary judgement on the claim sought against Najib’s son.

The Malaysian government filed the writ of summons and statement of claim against Mohd Nazifuddin last July 24 where it claimed he had unpaid taxes from 2011 and 2017 as stated through the assessment notice dated March 15, 2019.

It claimed in the statement of claim that Mohd Nazifuddin’s failure to pay taxes for seven years which should be done within 30 days from the date of assessment notice as stipulated under Section 103 of the Income Tax Act 1967, caused an additional payment to be imposed.

The government claimed his failure to settle the amount within 60 days in accordance with the act, imposing another compounded 5% increase which brought the total to RM37.6 million owed.

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