‘IRB raids not politically motivated’

PUTRAJAYA: The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has denied that political meddling had led it to raid companies belonging to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s sons and associates.

IRB chief executive officer Datuk Sabin Samitah stressed that any action without strong justification could land the board in trouble.

“How am I supposed to justify it if my officers simply go and raid any company that has no tax issues? We can face suits. There is no political interference,” he said here after the IRB 2017 Merdeka celebration yesterday.

According to Sabin, any investigation or audit conducted by the IRB on an individual or company was based on detailed risk analysis. He said any raid would be conducted according to procedure, and denied that the IRB was targeting Dr Mahathir, his sons and their associates.

Sabin said any investigation and audit to be conducted would involve things across the board, and not targeting individuals or only one company

He said the IRB had been carrying out an aggressive compliance programme to be fair to all taxpayers. Should any individual or company fail to pay the correct amount of taxes, he said the IRB would go after them.

The IRB was reported to have conducted raids on the companies of Dr Mahathir’s three sons — Kencana Capital Sdn Bhd, Opcom Holdings Bhd and Crescent Capital Sdn Bhd.

Following the raids, Dr Mahathir was reported as saying the country’s leaders including the prime minister and his family should be subjected to raids as well.