Nothing peculiar about suing Petronas, says Abd Karim

0

KUCHING: Suing Petronas for the State Sales Tax (SST) is no different from cases of any normal person feeding the mouth of his family members, said Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

The Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) vice president said the state government was able to see that they are not getting much from the current federal government and suing the latter for the five per cent SST on petroleum products, therefore, makes sense.

“When a person is pressured to put food on the table for five children when his monthly salary is only RM1,000, he will be thinking of how to make extra income like selling banana fritters,” he said.

“We can lose the case legally because decision rests on the judges but at least we make efforts. We are trying to do what is best or good for the sake of Sarawakians,” he pointed out when asked to comment on the potentially landmark and on-going case of Sarawak versus Petronas.

He added that the five per cent oil and gas royalty from the federal government is just pittance compared to ‘wealth’ the latter extracts from Sarawak.

“The federal government is getting much more (than Sarawak) as they have the PITA, Petroleum Tax and royalty. To me, they do not deserve the royalty as these are supposed to be given to those owning the wealth and state(s) producing the resources,” he said when explaining the reason behind the state government suing Petronas for the unpaid SST to the tune of RM1.3 billion (calculated up to June 2019).

Abdul Karim said if the state has been given equitable funding from its own extracted resources, the idea of suing Petronas for the SST might have not come into play.

“When we are not happy we will be thinking of how to resolve the problems. Losing does not mean we lose everything because the resources are still in our land. There are still other ways for us.

“As much as possible, I don’t want to see us losing the case but I strongly believe we are fighting for the sake of Sarawak’s interests. If you (federal government) want to see a prosperous and harmonious Malaysia – where Malaya and the Borneon States are – to exist in harmony they (federal government) must also understand the feeling of the people of Sabah and Sarawak. Don’t put aside totally what we have been doing all these years.”

Abdul Karim said if the federal government wants to look at things positively they must make sure that the development in Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia are at least on equitable term.

“Then probably we are not as angry as we are today. We are not asking for Independence. We love to be in Malaysia but we hope we are together in harmony. There should not be first class and second class citizens,” he said.