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SABAH SURVEYS | Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Warisan chairman Shafie Apdal decided to support Dr. Mahathir Mohamad even though the former prime minister did not want to cede the Petronas sales tax to Sabah during his term as prime minister.
“When Muhyiddin Yassin became prime minister, Shafie had the option of supporting Mahathir or Muhyiddin.
“He chose to support Mahathir, who did not want to give the oil sales tax to the people of Sabah and Sarawak,” Khairy said during a ceramah at the Tempasuk state seat in Kota Belud today.
He said Mahathir was prime minister for two years under the Pakatan Harapan administration, but he refused to give Sabah and Sarawak the tax on Petronas oil sales.
Within six months of the Muhyiddin administration, Khairy said that the Sarawak state government had collected nearly RM3 billion in sales taxes from Petronas.
“This is what Muhyiddin has done and said that after Sabah’s election, he will ask Petronas to also give the sales tax to the Sabahans,” he said.
Khairy also recalled that during Mahathir’s first ministry, Sabah and Sarawak did not receive much development.
It was also the Sarawak government that first insisted to the federal government that Petronas pay the sales tax directly to the state government, he added. If this was agreed, Sabah would have received the same treatment.
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“This was the Sarawak government that did this. The Warisan government was weak and just kept going, ”Khairy criticized.
Following the nearly RM3 billion collected in sales tax by the Sarawak government on September 17, Shafie had said in the election campaign that he will ensure that Petronas pays Sabah the sales tax as well if Warisan returns to power in the next elections.
Follow Malaysiakini’s coverage of the Sabah state elections here.
