Rahazlan Affandi bin Abdul Rahim

On the court record

The reported matters are Federal Court public-law and revenue appeals on the government side, from anti-dumping duties to sales-tax exemptions, grounded in the judgments.

Rahazlan Affandi bin Abdul Rahim's reported matters are appellate public-law and revenue cases argued before the Federal Court of Malaysia, appearing for the government side. A trade-remedies decision concerned anti-dumping duties, where the questions of law ran to the export price and constructed export price, related-party transactions, fair comparison, normal value and duty drawback, measured against the World Trade Organization Anti-Dumping Agreement and Article VI of the GATT, and the relevant provisions of the domestic anti-dumping legislation. Appearing for the appellant ministers and director-general, the Federal Court answered the questions of law posed and disposed of the appeal accordingly.

Revenue law features strongly. In related Federal Court appeals on sales tax the issue was the strict construction of a tax exemption under the Sales Tax (Persons Exempted From Payment of Tax) Order 2018, including the distinction between traders and manufacturers and between statutory orders and ministerial letters. Appearing on the customs side across these appeals, the Federal Court in one matter dismissed a taxpayer's appeal and in another allowed the appeal, setting aside the Court of Appeal and reinstating the High Court decision, in each case with no order as to costs, underlining the narrow reading the courts give to exemptions from tax.

Public law completes the profile. In a Federal Court appeal concerning the interpretation of the vested rights of registered medical practitioners to dispense medicine under the Poisons Act 1952, he appeared for the appellant; because the litigation concerned significant public interests, the Court made no order as to costs. A thread across these decisions is the interpretation of statutes that allocate money and rights between the state and the citizen, from anti-dumping duties and sales-tax exemptions to the statutory entitlements of a profession, argued at the apex of the court system before the Federal Court of Malaysia.