The ministry’s tax division head Hazlan Abdul Aziz said this when cross-examined by lawyer Guok Ngek Seong, representing Lim, who was the finance minister under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government from May 2018 to February 2020.
Guok: Based on the ministry’s records, did you see any cancellation of tax exemptions (for the foundation) between 2018 and 2002 by Lim?
Hazlan: No.
The second witness for the defendant, former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, also agreed with Guok that his evidence today was consistent with a press statement made by the finance ministry last year.
In that statement, the ministry said neither Lim as former finance minister nor its officers had revoked the exemption granted to the foundation.
“I checked the records before I came to court today,” said Hazlan, who was involved in tax exemption work in the ministry after March 2020.
Earlier, he told Muhyiddin’s lawyer Chetan Jethwani that the Perikatan Nasional government had given a tax exemption of about RM426 million to the Yayasan Al-Bukhary group of companies after a letter was sent to the then prime minister in February 2021.
Hazlan said the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) had conducted an audit of these companies before the exemption was given.
“We do not know the details of the audit by LHDN that led the foundation to send an appeal letter to allow for the tax exemption,” he said.
Lim filed the suit on March 27 last year, seeking an apology from Muhyiddin and the retraction of three allegedly defamatory statements.
Muhyiddin was alleged to have accused Lim on March 9 of involvement in the PH government’s decision to revoke the tax exemption previously given to Yayasan Al-Bukhary. The statement was allegedly made shortly after Muhyiddin was released from arrest by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
The second statement, made in a media release on March 11, alleged that Lim had imposed a tax on the foundation and a 45% penalty on tax payable for preceding years.
Lim also accused Muhyiddin of telling the media after the Bersatu president had delivered his winding-up speech at the party’s annual general assembly on March 12 that since LHDN was under Lim’s purview at the time, any instructions to cancel the foundation’s tax exemption must have come from him.
Lim said the statements, in their natural and ordinary meaning, were meant to show that he had abused his position and power by authorising the imposition of taxes and penalties on a welfare foundation.
He said the statements were also meant to depict him as racist, anti-Malay, anti-Islam and a vindictive person, and that Muhyiddin had acted in bad faith.
Muhyiddin is relying on the defence of justification, fair comment and qualified privilege.
The defence closed its case after Hazlan completed his testimony. The plaintiff had produced three witnesses.
Judicial commissioner Roz Mawar Rozain, who is presiding over the trial, said she would hear oral submissions from parties on Sept 12.