PKR lawmaker Wong Chen has slammed the government for granting the prime minister extraordinary powers to influence the granting of licences to regasify, distribute gas and the transportation of gas.

This has been done via the Gas Supply (Amendment) Bill 2015 that was passed in the Dewan Rakyat this afternoon.

The existing Act stipulates that such powers lie with the Energy Commission, which falls under Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry, Wong said.

He listed the controversial sections of the amended Bill as:

1. The commission only may grant the licence for the regasification or distribution of gas with the approval of the minister;

2. The commission may grant a licence for the transportation of gas to a person designated by the minister;

This is to empower the minister to designate a person to be granted a transportation licence with monopoly status for a specific area of gas supply; and

3. The licence can only be transferred, assigned, sub-assigned or otherwise disposed of with the written consent of the minister or the commission.

"The actual ministry-in-charge now is the Prime Minister's Department, and the (word) 'minister' (stipulated in the Bill) is the prime minister," Wong told a press conference at the Parliament lobby: .

"This Bill looks very innocent, it looks like nothing is going wrong. No, it is not. The gas industry is a multi-billion dollar industry.

"This amendment will effectively legalise crony capitalism and allow Ali Baba practices to continue legally."

In his winding-up speech, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Wahid Omar confirmed that the prime minister is one of the ministers that will a say in these matters.

He, however, defended the Bill, saying the amendment would ensure continuity of gas supply in case one of the suppliers goes bankrupt.

He also said the amendment would ensure the licence would not be traded freely and sold to the highest bidder.

"(We) can monitor the activities so the licence holders cannot sell their licence to another party for a higher price," he told Parliament.

Wong, who urged the government to amend the Bill, was not conviced by Wahid's reply.

He said the commission alone was enough to ensure the continuity of gas supply without giving such power to one man.