KUCHING: Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan has stressed that all relevant companies must pay the five percent state sales tax, including Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas).
“We have already made our stand very clear, that Petronas has to comply with our law. So if it is five per cent, it is five per cent.
“If they can comply with the rules of other countries where they are operating, why is it that when it comes to their operation in Sarawak, they are not complying?” he questioned Wednesday when asked to comment on a report in a Malay-language national daily that said Petronas had offered to pay Sarawak a courtesy (ihsan) payment of three per cent instead of the five per cent state sales tax.
Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Urban Development and Natural Resources and Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industry Terminal and Entrepreneur Development, opined that it would be an embarrassment that Malaysia’s very own government-linked company (GLC) could not comply with local laws.
“Bikin malu (Embarrassing)! Other companies like Shell, which are foreign companies, they already complied, already paid (the sales tax).
“They must follow Sarawak laws. Our stand is very clear,” he said.
Petronas, through the federal government, recently offered Sarawak the three per cent courtesy payment.
However, the offer came with a condition that the state government should drop the sales tax claim and also the implementation of the Oil Mining Ordinance 1958 (OMO58).