KOTA KINABALU: Warisan has again denied claims they feared former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad when pursuing its oil and gas rights when it was in power.
The party’s president, Shafie Apdal, said that the Warisan-led state government had formulated plans to champion the cause of oil and gas rights.
He pointed to a statement by the state finance minister today that Sabah’s revenue from petroleum sales tax was to 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 petroleum companies. This shows we did not fear Tun Mahathir,” he said when debating the Sabah budget at the state assembly.
Earlier this month, Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Masing claimed that the previous Warisan Plus Sabah government was afraid of demanding its oil and gas rights from Mahathir.
He said this after Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Jeffrey Kitingan said Sabah would try to strike a commercial agreement with Petronas, similar to what Sarawak had done.
Masing also said Sarawak had actually approached the Sabah government under Warisan to join them in suing Petronas over the 5% sales tax on petroleum products but was rebuffed by one of its ministers instead.
On Dec 9, Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking rejected Masing’s allegations.
Leiking also revealed that the Warisan government started imposing the 5% sales tax on nine oil and gas companies operating in Sabah in April but in August, Shafie, then the caretaker chief minister, said Petronas was the only one that had yet to pay up.
In 2018, Pakatan Harapan had promised in its 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 “workable” as it would mean that Petronas would no longer become the international oil company it was.