No discount for Petronas to settle 2019 SST: Sarawak assistant minister

The Sarawak state government today dismissed a claim by its former state finance minister Wong Soon Koh that it has agreed to accept a vastly reduced payment of state sales tax (SST) from Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) for petroleum products obtained from the state.

State Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said Wong’s claim that the anticipated oil and gas tax for 2019 and 2020 totalling RM6.775 billion was reduced to RM2 billion was completely untrue and misleading.

“Under the terms of the settlement, Petronas will pay in full to the Sarawak government SST due for the year 2019. This amounted to around RM2 billion, excluding statutory late payment penalties and interest accruing on the amount assessed from the date of the Notice of Assessment till full settlement. The precise amount is still under computation.

“The SST for 2020 remains at five percent of the sale value of the petroleum products. Only Notices of Assessment for the first quarter of 2020 have been issued. There is no agreement yet for the reduction of SST for the current year 2020,” she said in a statement.

According to her, the RM2 billion paid by Petronas is only the SST for 2019 and excluded the SST paid by other oil companies like Shell, Murphy Oil, Pertamina, and others operating in the state. The amount of SST to be collected in 2020 has yet to be ascertained.

In a statement issued earlier today, Wong, who is now the president of Parti Bersatu Sarawak (PSB), a state-based opposition party, claimed that the state government was anticipating an oil and gas tax revenue of RM6.775 billion for two years (2019 and 2020).

“Now we have found out that the Sarawak government has to settle for a vastly reduced sum of only RM2 billion instead of RM6.775 billion. That means a shortfall of RM4.775 billion in the expected income in the two years’ budget,” he said.

He said Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Tun Openg, who is also the state finance minister, had to explain how the state government would account for the budget deficit for 2019 and 2020 in light of the huge drop in income. - Bernama