Business operators along the famous Petaling Street, are upset after having being gun-flashed by dozens of police officers during a Internal Revenue (IRB) tax collection operation on July 27, a Thursday.

Hawkers of the tourist-laden street complained that the police, who accompanied the taxmen, were carrying sub-machine guns and had scared away customers.

Opposition DAP claimed that the exercise revealed a type of tax collection intimidation and profiling against the business community that is "excessive and discriminatory".

The party, led by its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, had attempted to hand over a letter of protest to IRB director Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid yesterday, but the latter was in a closed-door meeting, according to IRB officers.

Lim, in his statement, claimed that over 300 IRB officers came to give tax advice and reminders and were accompanied by four truckloads of police personnel wielding sub-machine guns.

It is the first time the party had heard that IRB officials were accompanied by armed police officers on such an exercise, he said.

A source at IRB however said it was unlikely that there was more than 100 IRB officers at the location.

From July 25 to 27, IRB had carried out the tax advice exercise involving some 250 officers. The exercise covered the city's centre (including Petaling Street), Jalan Sungai Besi, Bukit Jalil, Bangsar, Jalan Klang, Brickfields, Pantai Dalam, Salak Selatan and Puchong.

The officers visited 325 employers and were serving final notices to 222 taxpayers, in addition to giving 'advice' and encouraging taxpayers to settle their outstanding tax payments.

IRB, meanwhile, has no official statement on the matter.

Lim said that using armed police officers to accompany IRB officers on their tax rounds on July 27 had "affected the business climate of the area by giving an impression that either a serious crime has happened or a lack of security."

"Malaysia is not under threat from any terrorist attack and many customers quickly left the area upon seeing so heavily armed policemen

Petaling Street a bad name

"There is public alarm at such show of force not only in Petaling Street but also other business in the country who have called us to express their unhappiness over such methods. Businessmen feel intimidated... Are IRB officers going to be accompanied by army tanks and helicopters when they go around collecting tax?" asked Lim in the protest letter.

He added that such actions raise questions why it was introduced in Petaling Street which would give rise to "unhealthy suspicions that the hawkers of the area is targeted".

Lim felt that the exercise was "profiling against certain sections of the business community that is an excessive use of power and discriminatory."

He said while IRB has improved the tax collection by 6.5 percent to RM105.8 billion, "it must not be done at all costs at the expense of the welfare of the business community and tax payers".