KUALA LUMPUR – Petronas’ estimated contribution of RM35 billion to government coffers next year is not good fiscal discipline, Subang MP Wong Chen said.
The PKR lawmaker was referring to the estimated sum that the national oil company would remit to Putrajaya for 2023, as listed in the Fiscal Outlook and Federal Government Revenue Estimates 2023 document.
Wong said this would cause Petronas to have less money to invest in its own projects.
“Petronas will (also) have less money to build up their savings,” he said when contacted by The Vibes.
Wong had tweeted a photo from the document following the tabling of Budget 2023 yesterday, saying “squeezing” a large sum of money from Petronas was not good fiscal discipline by the government.
5:50PM
— Wong Chen (@WongChen_MY) October 7, 2022
How much will Petronas cough up for 2023?
Answer: RM35 billiion!
The government has constantly said that Malaysia has to wean off revenue dependency on oil and gas. Squeezing RM35 billion from Petronas is not an act of fiscal discipline but the very opposite. pic.twitter.com/1GSavrgpwj
It is also the opposite of reducing revenue dependency on oil and gas, which Malaysia has claimed it wanted to do, he added in his tweet.
Speaking to The Vibes, Wong said the usual sum Petronas previously contributed was usually around RM25 billion.
“At RM35 billion, this means (that the) government is spending more than it should.
“Oil and gas are non-renewable. The profits from this should be saved for future generations, like what they do in Norway,
“But Malaysia uses oil money to the max, with no savings. If this continues and when the oil runs out, there will be nothing left.
“So we have to slowly reduce/wean off our dependency on oil money as a revenue source and be more like Norway and save the money.”
Additionally, Putrajaya needs to find other sources of revenue, while Petronas must be “professionally run without politics”, Wong said.
Federal revenue collection for 2023 is expected to be lower in 2023 by 4.4% to RM272.6 billion, or 15% of gross domestic product.
The Finance Ministry said in the same document cited by Wong this would be due to anticipated lower non-tax revenue collection, due to lower dividends from government entities.
Budget 2023 tabled yesterday, meanwhile, is RM372.3 billion, and is RM40.2 billion more than 2022’s allocation of RM332.1 billion.
In another tweet, Wong had highlighted how RM50 billion from Petronas for government revenue for 2022 was not approved by Parliament.
He called it “shocking” as well as hypocritical that the Finance Ministry was pushing for a Fiscal Responsibility Act, and yet was “raiding” the national oil company. – The Vibes, October 8, 2022
