KUCHING: The Sarawak government has given a deadline to Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) to settle the five percent sales tax on petroleum products by October-end.State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Speaker Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar revealed the deadline following a meeting with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg and the state Consultative Committee on Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“We are confident they will pay the sales tax … because we have the leverage. The (State) Constitution is on our side,” he told reporters yesterday when asked if Petronas had agreed to pay the sales tax.
Asfia, the committee chairman, said Petronas is expected to pay the five percent, meaning the state should be receiving RM3 billion or more. “It is expected to be paid … constitutionally. But we cannot reveal the details now,” he pointed out.Asfia said since negotiations were in progress, it would be premature to disclose the details. Earlier, the chief minister updated the committee on the negotiations between the state and federal governments on MA63.
“We had a fruitful discussion with the chief minister and he had kindly briefed us on the matter.
“Most of the issues have been resolved among the state government, federal government and Petronas. The state and federal governments on the one hand, and Petronas on the other,” said Asfia.
However, he revealed that there were outstanding issues where some of the arguments were “diametrically opposed to each other”.
“We will allow some latitude to settle these outstanding issues until the end of October. By end of October, we will think of the next step,” he said, adding the issue discussed was “principally on oil and gas, and nothing more”.
