By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Nov 27: In the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) today, Minister of Utility and Telecommunication Dato Sri Julaihi Narawi tells off Padungan assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen (PH-DAP) for falsely accusing his ministry of terminating MyGaz Sdn Bhd’s licence and for not being present when ministers are giving their winding-up speeches.
Julaihi stated that MyGaz Sdn Bhd is a subsidiary of Siam Gas, an LPG gas supplier from Thailand.
It is currently one of the two suppliers of subsidised LPG cylinders in the State alongside Petros Niaga Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros).
He mentioned that after careful consideration concerning MyGaz Sdn Bhd, his Ministry has decided that the company’s subsidised LPG licence, which expires on Nov 30, 2023, will not be renewed.
This means MyGaz Sdn Bhd will no longer be allowed to run a subsidised LPG business starting Dec 1, 2023, and Petros Niaga will become the sole distributor for 700,000 subsidised LPG cylinders throughout Sarawak.
“It is not true that we terminate the licence because it will expire on Nov 30, 2023. I am surprised that the Member of Padungan is enthusiastically supporting MyGaz. Why?
“You should be supporting our very own Malaysian company. Also, I am surprised. He said we ‘terminate’ (the licence). We are not terminating the licence mentioned above because we are not. We are renewing. These are two different questions.
“So I hope Padungan — you are not here again. You are always absent. I hope you will be around to listen to our winding-up speeches,” he said when presenting his ministerial winding-up speech in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here today.
Julaihi was responding to Chong’s recent statement dated Nov 25, who urged the Sarawak government not to terminate the gas distribution licence of MyGaz, which would allow Petros Niaga to monopolise the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution business in Sarawak starting Dec 1, 2023.
At the same time, Julaihi thanked MyGaz Sdn Bhd, a subsidised LPG gas supplier since taking over from Shell in 2013 (for ten years).
“However, a non-subsidised LPG licence for MyGaz Sdn Bhd is still valid until June 29, 2024. This means that MyGaz Sdn Bhd is still running an LPG business without subsidy in Sarawak,” he explained. — DayakDaily
