KUCHING, May 11— Sarawak State Assembly Speaker Datuk Amar Asfia Awang Nassar today rejected a private member’s motion tabled by Batu Lintang State Assemblyman See Chee How to debate on the settlement agreement signed by the state government and Petronas last week.
Amar said See should have brought the matters raised in his motion to the Sarawak State Assembly’s Consultative Committee before bringing up such matters to the August house.
“The consultative committee will then advise this August house on the course of actions that this house shall take.
“Therefore, this motion has to be referred to the consultative committee first before it is brought to the house.
“This motion is dismissed,” he added.
See, in his motion, said that the state government and Petronas, in a joint statement issued on May 8, had reached a settlement on their legal suits against each other on terms that were not fully disclosed.
“The agreement for Petronas to pay RM2 billion to settle the sales tax imposed on their petroleum products for 2019, and that future petroleum products sales tax will be reduced and staggered based on future negotiations will have a detrimental and dire financial consequence on the state and the state’s concessions,” he said.
He said this would result in all previous agreements between the two parties made under the Petroleum Development Act 1974 as still valid and enforceable.
He said it would also mean that Petronas is still recognised as having full ownership and control over national oil and gas development in line with the Federal Constitution.
See asked Assistant Minister of Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, who signed the joint statement on behalf of the state government, to reveal in the August house the full terms of the settlement.
He said this will enable the August house to review, appraise and deliberate on the terms and concessions and to instruct the state government on its present and future conduct of the legal proceedings to safeguard the sovereign rights of Sarawak to its land and resources.
The Speaker also rejected another private’s member motion from Ba’Kelalan State Assemblyman Baru Bian to amend Supplementary Supply (2020) Bill, 2020, tabled by Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.
Asfia said the motion violates Standing Orders 67(4), 67(7) and 67(8) relating to tabling of supplementary bills.
Baru, in tabling his motion, said the Supplementary Supply (2020) Bill, 2020 did not contain the financial allocations of the RM2.55 billion for the three stimulus packages announced by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg.
He said the house should amend the Bill to include the authorisation of the allocation of RM2.55 billion from the Consolidated Fund for the expenditures for the scheduled and specified services not provided for or not fully provided for in the Supply (2020) Ordinance, 2019.
Baru, who is also Selangau Member of Parliament, noted that the chief minister had on March 23, April 10 and May 8 announced the financial allocations of RM1.15 billion, RM1.1 billion, and RM300 million under three separate and consecutive stimulus packages to help the people to face the economic uncertainties brought about by the Covid-19 outbreak.
