'Country may lose senior doctors due to IRB witch-hunt'

The Inland Revenue Board's (IRB) move to slap medical specialists with millions of ringgit in backdated taxes may drive them out of business or force them to take their practice overseas, warned the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) today.

While the country has seen an oversupply of medical graduates, it is in fact facing a shortage of specialists and it is this pool of doctors who are highly experienced and consult at public hospitals that the IRB is pursuing.

"The country may lose the senior specialists who can choose to move their practices overseas or retire as their children are already studying or working abroad or have properties there," MMA president Dr Ashok Zachariah Philip told Malaysiakini .