KUCHING, Sept 18: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo is calling upon the Sarawak government to disclose all dealings with Petronas and the federal government which made the settlement of 5 per cent State Sales Tax (SST) possible yesterday (Sept 17).
She held that the report of the settlement should not be kept out of public eye under the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA 1972) if the state government had nothing to fear and had done the right thing by all Sarawakians.
“I would like to know the terms of settlement if any, under which Petronas had paid the 5 per cent SST to Sarawak government.
“What are the strings attached, when the settlement of the 5 per cent SST should have been unconditional,” she asserted in a statement today.
With that, she urged the government not to cloak the failures it had done by Sarawak by forming committees and sub-committees she described as “meaningless” when it could give little compromise to the sovereignty of its oil and gas (O&G) resources.
Meanwhile, Soo said the 5 per cent Sarawak State Sales Tax (SST) imposed on its O&G resources was too little.
She said it should have been 25 per cent as Sarawak was also the landowner, and thereby had the ownership and economic rights over all the resources in the state.
“Petronas pays 38 per cent petroleum income tax (PITA) to the federal government since the 1970s, whereas Sarawak is only starting to impose 5 per cent SST in 2019.
“Sarawak should impost 25 per cent on our oil and gas. Sarawak is landowner and it has ownership and economic rights over all our resources.
“If Petronas feels that 25 per cent is untenable, then Petronas should just pay five per cent PITA to the federal government and 25 per cent SST to Sarawak,” she said. — DayakDaily
