By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Dec 27: Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar’s New Year wish is hoping that Petronas will not test Sarawakians’ patience with regards to the State Sales Tax of five per cent on petroleum products.
He thus questioned Petronas whether it was rational for the oil giant not to pay up the five per cent sales tax when it has been drilling the natural resources from Sarawak’s soil all these while.
“You (Petronas) are living on Sarawak, sucking Sarawak’s oil and gas. Why are you challenging us?
“If other oil companies can pay the five per cent, what can’t Petronas pay? Shell and a few other companies have already paid up. More importantly, it (Petronas) is the government’s company.
“So my wish is that there will be income sources to built up Sarawak,” he told a press conference after attending a briefing on Kampung Beradek Semilang village road upgrading at Public Works Department (PWD) Southern Region Office here.
Wan Junaidi pointed out that Sarawak needed a lot of revenue to build its water grid and other infrastructures such as bridges to elevate the livelihood of the people.
“We want to see Sarawak as developed as Peninsular Malaysia. Don’t keep on focusing on the development in Peninsular Malaysia and forget about Sarawak when many of Sarawak’s rights over its wealth have been taken by Peninsular Malaysia,” he said.
He also wishes for all approved projects to be continued and that the federal government will give substantial allocations to Sarawak government according to the Federal Constitution.
“Give back what belong to us because the Constitution stated clearly about the allocation to be made for infrastructure and maintenance.
“It is stated clearly in the Federal Constitution Article 112 (D) to review of special grants to states of Sarawak and Sabah,” he pointed out.
Wan Junaidi hopes that the federal government will not give excuse of ‘no money’ because Sarawak is still far behind in terms of development.
He noted that the federal government has always claimed to have ‘no money’ when Sarawak’s infrastructure projects were concerned but it could afford to allocate RM40 billion for Penang and RM1 billion to build airport in Kedah.
“So my wish is, be fair to Sarawak which has been producing the oil and gas and make significant contribution to the federal government.
“When Sarawak’s oil and gas industry yielded RM82 billion in 2019, the federal government did not give any to Sarawak,” he reminded.
