KUCHING: The Kuching High Court’s decision to dismiss Petronas judicial review application against imposition of State Sales Tax (SST) by the Sarawak government is a historic day for the state.
Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said the court had decided that Sarawak Legislative Assembly has the right to enact laws on SST and the Sarawak Sales Tax Ordinance is constitutional, legal and within the framework of the constitution.
“We have every right under the law to impose SST,” she said when met by reporters after the court proceedings yesterday.
She said it was indeed a good victory for Sarawak and now Petronas has to pay what it owed to the state.
“This is our rights under Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA 63) and the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) report. Nobody can take away that rights from us to impose the tax and also enact law as agreed upon and recommended under the IGC report,” she said.
She said as a result of the court decision, Petronas was now a taxable entity.
“We hope Petronas will accept this decision and not to appeal the case. What we did really is within the ambit of the constitution.
“Let’s get on with the decision, it is rather clear that this is our constitutional rights and we have every right under the law to impose this tax,” she added.
Sharifah Hasidah said it was time for Petronas to move forward and pay the tax it owed.
When asked how much Petronas should be paying, Hasidah said by now it would add up to over RM2 billion in SST to be paid to the state.
