Kelantan hopes new federal gov't will pay petroleum royalty
The Kelantan state government hopes there will be no more hurdles for the state to receive petroleum royalty from the federal government.
Kelantan deputy Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Abdullah said the state is placing all of its hopes on the federal government under the new leadership of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resolve the royalty payment issue.
"The most important matter (to the state) is the payment of royalty.
"We hope there is no problem because the National Finance Council had made a decision and now there's a new cabinet...
The Kelantan state government hopes there will be no more hurdles for the state to receive petroleum royalty from the federal government.
Kelantan deputy Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Abdullah said the state is placing all of its hopes on the federal government under the new leadership of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resolve the royalty payment issue.
"The most important matter (to the state) is the payment of royalty.
"We hope there is no problem because the National Finance Council had made a decision and now there's a new cabinet.
"Before this, we learned that (there were parties) at the Finance Ministry who flip-flopped (berdolak dalik) when the matter pertaining to the royalty payment arose," he told the media when met in Kota Bharu, Kelantan today.
Kelantan has been persistent in demanding the payment of the petroleum royalty for years.
For the record, the then economic affairs minister Azmin Ali had explained that the payments of the royalty to Kelantan had been done based on two oil platforms, namely Bumi Selatan and Suria Selatan which are located about three nautical miles from the state's coast.
The then finance minister Lim Guan Eng had also said that the federal government had channelled "goodwill payment" from petroleum proceeds directly to Kelantan.
However, the state did not recognise that as a royalty payment but instead merely as a goodwill payment.
This led to Lim addressing the confusion, saying that the funds were made in the form of a goodwill payment to avoid legal issues.
New cabinet line-up is fresh
Commenting on the new cabinet line-up, Mohd Amar said that it materialised after the prime minister sought advice and suggestions from related parties.
"Although it did not follow 100 percent of what the parties had wished for, we view it as a good line-up and portrays a fresh image to the society.
"We hope the new cabinet will function well with the main focus to heal the economy," he said.
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