PETRONAS must be made accountable to Parliament so that there is proper check and balance on how its funds are used, Pakatan Harapan lawmaker Wong Chen said today.

The Subang MP from PKR said while Petronas has been used to do national service at times, there have also been cases of the government adhering to poor fiscal discipline.

“And there’s the spendthrift attitudes of the cabinet.

“When the latter happens, Petronas should be accountable to Parliament so that MPs can defend Petronas from any feckless request for funds from the cabinet,” said Wong in a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

Wong was speaking to the press after Economic Affairs Minister Mustapa Mohamed told the lawmaker that the government did not plan to amend the Petroleum Development Act in a written reply.

The PKR leader had asked if the law will be amended to make Petronas accountable to Parliament.

It was reported this week that Petronas withdrew its appeal at the Court of Appeal over its failed judicial review application against Sarawak and the state’s comptroller of state sales tax regarding the RM2 billion sales tax issue. 

The judicial review application was sought last year when Sarawak started imposing an additional 5% tax on all petroleum products starting January 2019.

The extra tax came as a surprise then, as both Sarawak and Sabah were in talks with the PH federal government on their share of oil revenue under the Malaysian Agreement 1963.

Petronas did not pay the tax. Sarawak then filed a RM1.3 billion civil suit against the national oil firm. Today, the state withdrew the suit. – August 6, 2020.