The Kelantan government said the state was entitled to petroleum revenue payments because it does not recognise the Territorial Seas Act 2012.
In a statement today, Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakob said the state assembly had rejected the law in 2015.
"The state assembly rejected the law because the federal government was using it to limit the maritime borders of each state to just three nautical miles.
"This is denying Kelantan its rights to petroleum revenue payments," he said.
Ahmad (above) said the federal government was legally bound to pay five percent of the petroleum revenue generated in Kelantan because of the state's agreement with Petronas - signed in 1975.
He was responding to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said, who told Parliament on Feb 23 that Terengganu and Kelantan cannot claim oil revenue payments because of the Territorial Seas Act.
Azalina said this in response to a question from Pagoh MP Muhyiddin Yassin who asked if the government intended to channel oil revenue "directly" to the governments of Kelantan and Terengganu "as what was done by the PN government".
The payments mentioned by Muhyiddin were payments of RM200 million to the Kelantan government in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
There are several oil fields located off Kelantan's coast. These territories are named PM301 and PM302 in the south.
Over in the north, there was the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (MTJDA) and Commercial Arrangement Area between Malaysia and Vietnam (PM3 CAA).
Previously, Community Communications Department director Mohammad Agus Yusoff had criticised opposition parties for claiming that Putrajaya was marginalising Kelantan and Terengganu over oil revenue payments.
Agus argued that the matter should not arise as when PAS was in power between 2020 and 2022, the relevant laws such as the Territorial Seas Act were never amended or abolished. - Mkini
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