Opposition cries no money but Guan Eng says Kelantan oil royalty already paid

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng today told opposition MPs claiming that Kelantan has yet to receive its oil royalty to check with the PAS-led state government as the payment was already made last month.

"I have signed off the payment on the prime minister's instruction and I have checked with my office which said the payment has been made.

"It was meant to be made in January (next year) but it was brought forward to last month.

"So I hope there will not be untruthful statements which are not grounded in facts. They can check with the Kelantan government for confirmation," he told journalists at the Dewan Rakyat lobby.

Lim was referring to opposition leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob's speech in the Dewan Rakyat when debating the Budget 2020, during which he claimed there were very few high-impact projects for PAS-led Kelantan and Terengganu.

As such, Ismail (photo) said it was about time for the federal government to pay a 20 percent oil royalty to Kelantan and Terengganu.

At this, Ahmad Marzuk Shaary (Pengkalan Chepa-PAS) interjected, stating that Kelantan was not even getting five percent in oil royalty.

"I would like to refer to YB's suggestion for 20 percent oil royalty but the problem is even the five percent promised to Kelantan has not been given," he said.

Marzuk then likened this to the Lim claiming that the previous BN government had "robbed" GST refunds when it deposited proceeds into the consolidated account which was utilised instead of a trust account which was meant for refunds.

"If Petronas pays the federal government every year but they are not put into the state government's account, can we say that Pakatan Harapan has robbed Kelantan's oil royalty?

"And if we are queried who is the head of the robbers, is it the finance minister?" he said.

To this, Ismail said he agreed and that the statement was "very accurate".

Addressing this, Lim said the previous BN government did not pay the five percent oil royalty to Kelantan but the new Harapan government has done so.

Despite this, he said PAS was now engaged in political cooperation with BN. - Mkini