Viral " Petronas Need To Pay Up Over RM 2b In SST To Sarawak End Of Sept 2020 "

KUCHING : Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) is expected to pay up over RM 2 Billion for the sales and services tax for the oil and gas to the State Government by this month end, said Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Department (Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali.

She said the payment should be done soon, after the computation of the process which includes the penalty and interest.

"The wait will not be much longer, by end of September 2020 we should be done. On the exact amount, I'm not sure as it is still being computed," she told reporters at the Surau Darul Nur Dini upgrading works completion event at Kampung Sungai Midin today.

Sharifah Hasidah, who is also Samariang aseemblywoman, was confident the payment will be made soon.

In January 2019, the Sarawak Government imposed a 5 per cent sales tax on Petronas' petroleum products under the state's Sales Tax Ordinance 1998, which the latter refused to pay, citing it as unconstitutional. The state government then took legal action against it.

The Kuching High Court then ruled on March 13 that Sabah and Sarawak had the right under the Federal Constitution to impose sales tax on petroleum products.

Yesterday, Senior Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the third meeting of the committee set up to find commercial solutions over Sarawak's petroleum sales tax claim will be held in Kuching on September 17 (Thursday).

He said the meeting would be held to get updates on what the working committee has achieved so far when met at the My Malaysia Day art exhibition here.

The committee had been set up to facilitate negotiations between the Sarawak and federal governments and it was co-chaired by Fadillah and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, together with the Sarawak government and Petronas.

@ Jackie San