PETALING JAYA, 3 March 2009: Former Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo ought to have declared the car and driver provided to him by Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) for tax purposes.
Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said yesterday that the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) had confirmed that declaration of benefits in kind was applicable to all staff, including the chairperson and members of the board of directors.
“There is no exemption to anyone irrespective of rank and position in the company,” Khalid said in a press statement issued yesterday after PNSB met with the IRB to formally admit its past failure to list benefits in kind in its Employee Assessment (EA) forms.
Khalid said the Selangor government was “therefore puzzled as to why Khir claims that there was no need for him to pay taxes for the car and driver he had received while he was menteri besar”.
Khir, who was also the former PNSB chairperson, was reported as having said “If I pay taxes on the car, it would be like paying double to the IRB as the company would have also paid for it”.
In a separate statement issued today, Khalid’s political secretary Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said Khir’s remark showed the “shallowness” of his understanding in administrating the state and its subsidiary companies.
“Does Khir know the meaning of ‘benefits in kind’? If he doesn’t, it is highly embarrassing for a former menteri besar who headed the state government for two terms. Or is he just trying to evade responsibility for this wrong doing?” Nik Nazmi said.
Khalid had on 26 Feb disclosed that PNSB had failed to list benefits in kind given to its employees in EA forms submitted to the IRB over the past years.
Among the recipients of such benefits was Khir, who was given a Toyota Harrier in 2005, and a driver in 2006 while he was PNSB chairperson.
Other benefits in kind which have been given out and not declared to IRB included holidays in local and foreign destinations. These were given to employees, including the chairperson and board members.
The Selangor government is conducting an evaluation exercise on PNSB. The evaluation is being led by a group of advisers appointed through Menteri Besar Incorporated (MBI), which Khalid heads.
PNSB is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Selangor government. 
