PETALING JAYA: PKR’s Wong Chen wants Putrajaya to explain why the government tabled a windfall profit tax bill, labelling it an “extraordinary retrospective” law.
The Subang MP questioned if there had been certain parties which had initiated legal action against imposing windfall profit tax.
“And have these quarters obtained a court judgment on the matter?” he said when debating the Windfall Profit Levy (Validation) Bill 2023 in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Wong also wanted the government to reveal the total sum of windfall tax from the palm oil industry for the last 24 years as well as an annual breakdown.
In March, the said bill was tabled to indemnify Putrajaya for imposing the tax particularly on palm oil producers since 1999, despite defective orders to do so.
An explanatory statement to the bill states that it seeks to validate the imposition and collection of the profit levy from January 1999 to Jan 31 this year.
It said ministerial orders to impose the levy had not been tabled in the Dewan Rakyat, “which should have been done”, and no resolution was passed by the House to confirm the levy orders.
If passed, the Act stipulates that no action or legal proceedings can be brought against the government and its officers with regard to the levy collected.
Wong wanted to know which minister and Treasury secretary-general oversaw the levy collection.
“I am aware that the government needs to be protected from returning billions in taxes collected, but Malaysians need to know which minister or secretary-general was sleeping on the job.
“And the responsible party needs to be demoted, reprimanded or at least warned. Parliament cannot be used to cover up or rectify the mistakes of the previous ministers or secretaries-general.”
Wong also wanted the government to explain why independent power producers (IPP) had been exempted from the windfall tax, and wondered if such exemption was an admission that IPPs made a lot of profit.
In 2008, Reuters reported that Putrajaya exempted IPPs from the windfall tax if they agreed to alter electricity sales terms with power utility Tenaga Nasional.
“Who started this culture of IPPs and how many billionaires did this policy create? I suggest we ask the 4th and 7th prime minister,” Wong said, referring to Dr Mahathir Mohamad. - FMT
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