Senior revenue counsel Norhisham Ahmad said that it was part and parcel of LHDN’s duty to collect taxes from the taxpayers.
“We need to execute the court order that we obtained against a debtor.
“Besides, we waited for eight months for the defendant (Najib) to come and discuss any mode of payment after a summary judgment was issued, but nothing was done.
“The public may question as to why we sat on (executing) the judgment,” he said, objecting to Najib’s attempt to stay the RM1.69 billion additional tax arrears summary judgment order.
Judge Ahmad Bache had in July last year allowed the taxman to proceed with a summary judgment to recover over RM1.69 billion additional tax arrears from the former prime minister.
A bankruptcy notice was filed against Najib in February after he failed to pay the RM1.69 billion.
LHDN added the summary judgment was not stayed.
Najib has since filed an appeal to quash the summary judgment order, and the Appeals Court is set to hear his appeal on June 16.
Meanwhile, Najib’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told the court that they made attempts to renegotiate with the taxman on the RM1.69 billion issue.
“However, due to certain developments, the negotiations were terminated and LHDN proceeded with the bankruptcy proceeding.
“It seems that they were in a hurry to do so before my client’s appeal was heard. We are asking for a stay of execution to resolve certain things first.
“The stay order will not prejudice LHDN at all,” he added.
Shafee said if the summary judgment was not suspended pending Najib’s appeal, the former prime minister may “stand to lose everything he had built for himself since the 1970s”.
“If a stay is not granted, the bankruptcy proceedings will proceed. He stands to lose his pension and his properties may be auctioned off.
“He was also slapped with several civil lawsuits. This may create another problem because he needs to obtain the Insolvency director-general’s consent for the purpose,” the lawyer said.
Ahmad set June 14 to deliver the court’s ruling on whether to halt the summary judgment order pending Najib’s appeal.