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KOTA KINABALU: Warisan has again denied claims that they feared the former prime minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, when he was pursuing Sabah’s oil and gas rights when he was in power.
Party chairman Shafie Apdal said the Warisan-led state government had formulated plans to champion the cause of oil and gas rights.
He pointed to a statement from the state finance minister today that Sabah’s oil sales tax revenue would increase by RM1.2 billion as proof of the previous administration’s efforts.
“This has never been done, where a 5% sales tax is imposed on oil companies. This shows that we were not afraid of Tun Mahathir, ”he said while debating Sabah’s budget in the state assembly.
Earlier this month, Sarawak Chief Deputy Minister James Masing claimed that the former Warisan Plus Sabah government was afraid to demand its oil and gas rights from Mahathir.
He said this after Sabah’s Chief Deputy Minister Jeffrey Kitingan said that Sabah would try to strike a trade deal with Petronas, similar to what Sarawak had done.
Masing also said that Sarawak had actually approached the Sabah government under Warisan to join them in suing Petronas for the 5% sales tax on petroleum products, but was rejected by one of its ministers.
On December 9, Warisan vice president Darell Leiking rejected Masing’s allegations.
Leiking also revealed that the Warisan government began imposing the 5% sales tax on nine oil and gas companies operating in Sabah in April, but in August, Shafie, then the acting chief minister, said that Petronas was the the only one that still had to pay.
In 2018, Pakatan Harapan had promised in his general election manifesto to increase the royalties paid to Sabah and Sarawak from 5% to 20%.
However, in 2019, Mahathir admitted that giving 20% to Sabah and Sarawak was not “viable” as it would mean that Petronas would no longer become the international oil company that it was.
