Wong (centre) with See (second left) and the defence team.
SIBU (July 30): Shell Sarawak Berhad special advisor, Tan Kok Kiong, told the defamation trial against Parti Sarawak Bersatu president Dato Sri Wong Soon today that he was under the assumption that a discount had been given to Petronas as it paid RM2 billion instead of RM3.8 billion.
During cross-examination by defence counsel, George Lo, Tan said he could not be certain if Petronas was given a discount, although he knew about the RM3.8 billion in state sales tax (SST) as it was a number quoted by the news and confirmed by their government relationship officer.
When it was put to him that the words, “why the massive discount”, contained in Wong’s statement that led to the suit was not reported in a news article by Borneo Post Online, Tan replied: “It is not there, but obviously, if you owed RM3.8 billion and you only pay RM2 billion, it is a discount. That is what I assume.”
He testified that he had no knowledge of the details of the RM3.8 billion apart from it being related to the sales tax for oil and gas products.
He also explained that Shell’s interest in the matter was more about the resolution between Petronas and the state government on the SST.
“So, we are obviously in oil and gas, we know that there is a lot of uncertainty in the figures. So, our interest was more about resolution between Petronas and the State.
“We are more interested in removing the uncertainty for foreign oil investors like Shell. So we do not try to compare because we do not know the details of the RM3.8 billion,” he said.
Tan, who is the last to be called as a witness for the plaintiff, gave his testimony via Zoom.
ong (third left) and his team after the proceedings.
During the re-examination in chief, State Legal Counsel Dato Sri JC Fong asked Tan to explain what he meant in the reply to Lo on his “uncertainty” in the figures.
Tan said he was referring to the RM3.8 billion and RM2 billion sums.
“The RM3.8 billion is the (state) budget and in the budget is always making a lot of assumptions on the price of LNG (liquefied natural gas), the price of oil and gas, on the production level. Production is dependent on the demand,” he said.
Asked how much in SST did Shell pay for petroleum products and LNG for 2019, he estimated it to be over RM100 million, adding that he did not have the exact figure.
When Fong asked whether Shell paid SST on LNG for the year 2019, Tan replied that they did not as they did not have equity interest in LNG.
After Tan’s testimony, the defence counsel called its first witness, Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How.
See was asked to confirm his witness statement today and cross-examination by the plaintiff will be done next week.
The trial was adjourned to Aug 5 and Aug 6. Provisional continuation of trial dates are on Aug 16 until Aug 18.
In the suit, the state government claims that Wong had defamed it in the statement issued on May 9 which questioned the settlement with Petronas on the SST. It is suing Wong, who is also Bawang Assan assemblyman and a former state minister, for RM5 million.