A DAP man questioned the Government’s decision to give the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) access to taxpayers’ bank account details under the latest amendment of Section 106A of Income Tax Act 1967.
“The Government claims that they have the right to do so with a world of reasons but don’t you think that that’s an abuse of power and misuse of power could happen any time?” said DAP’s Sungai Pelek assemblyman Ronnie Liu.
“And how about our privacy and personal security, and the leaking of information to bad hats? Be ready to receive calls from mysterious ‘agents’ from the ‘IRB’.”
Liu was responding to recent news that IRB is no longer required to inform taxpayers when it requests the latter’s bank account details from banks to conduct a review or investigation according to the latest amendment of Income Tax Act 1967.
Currently the Act allows the Government to recover any tax due and payable through civil proceedings as a debt due to the Government.
Proposal Section 106A of the Income Tax Act 1967 is introduced to empower the Director General of Inland Revenue (DGIR) to require any financial institution to furnish taxpayer’s bank account information within a specific timeframe for garnishment application purpose.
According to news portal Sin Chew Daily, the proposed Section 106A also stated that if IRB charges a taxpayer in court, IRB is allowed to request for taxpayers’ bank account details once a detention order is issued, and that the bank is not allowed to inform the taxpayers of this request.
In this regard, tax expert Koong Lin Loong told Sin Chew Daily that the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) would no longer be applicable with the enforcement of Section 106A in the future.
According to the PDPA, banks need to acquire taxpayers’ consent before furnishing bank account details to IRB.
“The authorities can also request for taxpayers’ information from association to check whether income tax was filed from the angle of donations,” Koong was reported as saying. – Dec 15, 2021
Photo credit: Malaya Corporate
