KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) today confirmed that the Sarawak government and the comptroller of state sales tax have filed a lawsuit against it over the alleged failure to pay sales tax to the state.
“Petronas confirms that the comptroller of state sales tax of Sarawak and the Sarawak state government have filed an action against Petronas before the High Court of Kuching on Nov 21, 2019, for non-payment of the Sarawak sales tax on petroleum products,” the national oil company said in a statement.
On Thursday last week, Sarawak Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said in a statement that Petronas had not paid the state sales tax for petroleum products under the State Sales Tax Ordinance 1998 which was due to the state.
“As a result, the state government is left with no choice but to commence legal action for the recovery of the unpaid taxes due,” she said.
Neither her statement nor the one-paragraph statement issued by Petronas today mentioned the amount being sought from Petronas.
The five per cent state sales tax was imposed on Jan 1 this year and Petronas is said to be the only oil and gas company operating in the state which has not paid the sales tax. – Bernama
