RM7.2b oil royalty ‘rip-off’ for Sabah
It is highly unlikely that the current BN regime will give Sabahans the 20% oil royalty it is demanding, said opposition MP Hiew King Cheu.
Queville To, FMT
KOTA KINABALU: The RM7.2 billion received by Sabah for the past 40 years, being the 5% oil royalty payment under an agreement to extract the commodity from the state and its waters, is a major rip-off for the Sabahans, Kota Kinabalu MP Hiew King Cheu said today.
“The Sabahans’ demand for an increase in oil and gas sharing is understandable and this figure [of RM7.2 billion] is solid proof that the wealth of the Sabahan is exploited and being siphoned away.
“We did not enjoy the wealth provided by mother earth; instead we ended up with plenty of hardship, poverty, no development, and poor economy. Many other oil-producing countries are rich, but Sabah has remained a poor state,” he said.
He was commenting on Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Najib Tun Razak’s reply to a question raised by him in Parliament recently.
Hiew had asked about the total amount of oil royalty paid to Sabah thus far.
Najib noted that the federal government had since the beginning collected a total of RM8.4 billion which included income tax on the petroleum, export duty, and royalty up to 2011 from the production and export of oil and gas in Sabah.
The export duty is RM0.8 billion and the 5% royalty is RM7.2 billion.
Noting that this figure was equivalent to a total of RM144 billion (about US$47 billion today) worth of oil and gas that had been exported during this period, Hiew said the accuracy of the
figure was doubtful as it is thought to be merely an estimate of the oil and gas production in the state over the years.
He said such a meagre amount of oil royalty would have little impact on Sabah’s development, a contention that has been echoed by Pakatan which agrees that a higher percentage of oil and gas sharing would be fairer to the under-developed state where basic infrastructure is lagging compared to the rest of the country.
Pakatan has promised to raise the oil royalty paid to the state to 20% should it win the coming general election.
