Kelantan, Terengganu cannot seek five pct petroleum payments

 

PARLIAMENT | Kelantan and Terengganu do not qualify for the five percent petroleum revenue payments, the Dewan Rakyat was told.

Law and Institutional Reform Minister Azalina Said Othman said the Territorial Sea Act 2012 stipulated that states can only claim rights up to three nautical miles.

"The Cash Payment Agreement signed between Petronas and the governments of Kelantan and Terengganu stipulates that the states will be paid five percent for the petroleum won and saved in Kelantan and Terengganu within three nautical miles from the coastline.

"Petronas has never channelled petroleum revenue directly to Kelantan and Terengganu thus far because the extraction points are beyond the three nautical mile limit," she said.

However, she said, the federal government has been channelling wang ehsan (goodwill payments) to states nearest to petroleum extraction areas, including Kelantan and Terengganu, for projects which benefit the rakyat.

Law and Institutional Reform Minister Azalina Said Othman

Azalina was responding to a question from Muhyiddin Yassin (PN-Pagoh) who asked if the government will channel oil revenue "directly" to the governments of Kelantan and Terengganu "as what was done by the PN government".

These payments referred to by Muhyiddin were payments of RM200 million to the Kelantan government in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

This was a huge increase compared to the RM28 million in wang ehsan received by the state through the Federal Development Department (JPP) and Kelantan Islamic Religious Council (MAIK).

However, in 2019, Putrajaya - under the helm of Dr Mahathir Mohamad - paid Kelantan RM400 million in what was known as a "one-off" payment. That payment was not requested by the Kelantan government which had preferred the five percent petroleum payments instead.

In the run-up to the 15th parliamentary election, Muhyiddin had promised that Kelantan and Terengganu would be paid the five percent should PN come to power. - Mkini