Editor’s note: Total revenue derived from the production and sale of oil and gas in Sarawak from 1976 to 2017 is RM660 billion, and not as previously stated.
KUCHING, Oct 3: From 1976 to 2017, the total revenue derived from the production and sale of oil and gas in Sarawak amounted to RM660 billion, according to the Sarawak government.
Out of the RM660 billion, Sarawak received RM33 billion which is five per cent of the total amount.
“It must be pointed out that according to publicly available data, from 1976 to 2017, the total revenue derived from the production and sale of oil and gas within Sarawak territory amounted to RM660 billion, of which only five per cent or RM33 billion was paid to Sarawak.
“Sarawak has therefore contributed very significantly to federal coffers from its rich oil and gas resources since 1976,” said Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Assistant Minister Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali in a press statement today.
She said this in response to an article titled “Why the introduction of the Petroleum Sales Tax in Sarawak may not appeal to everyone” published by the Malaysian Reserve on Sept 30.
Sharifah Hasidah also pointed out that all the natural gas derived from Sarawak was converted to liquified natural gas for export to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, earning very significant foreign exchange for the Malaysian government.
“Hence, the imposition of State Sales Tax (SST) on petroleum products is a discharge of the state government’s fiduciary duty to Sarawakians to seek a fairer share of the revenues from oil and gas produced in Sarawak.
“Based on the present production rate of oil and gas in Sarawak and at current global oil prices, the amount is RM40 billion annually.
“The SST will yield approximately RM3 billion in additional revenue for the atate.
After all these years of contributing billions of ringgit to the federal treasury from the state’s petroleum resources, Sharifah Hasidah questioned Minister of Finance Mr Lim Guan Eng on his basis saying that the state’s imposition of SST to yield additional revenue of RM3 billion is “unreasonable” (as reported by Malaysian Reserve). — DayakDaily
