By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, June 11: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) wants the Sarawak Government to be accountable to the people and indicate when they expect Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) to pay up the State Sales Tax (SST) owed to the Sarawak government.
Its president Lina Soo is calling on Sarawak government to disclose a timeline as she believed that Sarawakians would not tolerate further delay or further deals on the 5 per cent petroleum sales tax payable by the national oil corporation.
“If the Sarawak government continues to delay the collection on any ground whatsoever, Sarawakians will begin to doubt the competency and commitment of the Sarawak government.
“We are really wondering at the competency of the Sarawak government in collecting the 2019 five per cent petroleum sales tax, and we are puzzled by the delay amidst the revelation by the Sarawak government that there are still ongoing negotiations.
Soo opined that there should be no further negotiation or any other terms or conditions to be attached to the payment of the 5 per cent petroleum sales tax.
Soo asserted that the court judgement is very clear.
“Sarawak had already won the case to claim the petroleum sales tax more than a month ago.
“There is no need to consider on both sides, anything other than that full payment must be effected immediately.
“If there is interest to be considered, it should only take a few days and not months to work out the final bill,” she said in a statement today.
She emphasised that the petroleum sales tax matter is not about Sarawak ownership or any other economic right over the state’s oil and gas, which are separate issues altogether and not coupled in any way with our right to collect sales tax.
Soo noted that Sarawak has every right to impose sales tax on Sarawak petroleum and to collect it in full.
Thus, she believed the collection of SST by the Sarawak Government cannot be used as a political tool to hold Sarawak voters to ransom. —DayakDaily
