Cabinet gives nod to IRB Act amendment bill: Fadillah

Proposed legislation to ensure alignment with Malaysia Agreement 1963, says DPM

KUCHING – The federal cabinet has approved the bill to amend provisions in the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB) Act 1995, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. The bill is to ensure that the act is in line with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

Fadillah said the bill would only be tabled during the next Dewan Rakyat meeting and not during the current session as initially planned. “Already approved by the cabinet. The amendment may be tabled at the next meeting,” the Petra Jaya MP told The Borneo Post.

He added that the bill’s tabling had to be rescheduled because the cabinet had just given its approval.

In April, Fadillah, who chairs the MA63 implementation technical committee, had said that the amendment bill is expected to be tabled during the current second meeting of the second session of the 15th Parliament, which began on May 22 and will run until June 15.

However, the amendment bill was not included in the order papers.

The much anticipated proposed bill, which seeks to include a provision to include the appointment of Sarawak and Sabah representatives in the IRB board of directors, was supposed to be tabled in Parliament in February.

However, in January, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim directly appointed the Sarawak state financial secretary to the IRB board, which meant a government representative had to step down to maintain the current composition of three government and non-government representatives.

The proposal to amend the law had been approved by the previous administration under then prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in September.

According to the Parliament’s official portal, the 32-day third meeting of the second session of Parliament is scheduled for October 9 to November 30.

– Borneo Post Online, June 3, 2023