Where are T'ganu's oil royalty payments for 2023, MB asks

PARLIAMENT | Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar (PN-Kemaman) asked Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for an explanation on the arrears in oil royalty payments to his state for last year.

“I would like an explanation from the prime minister, who is also the finance minister.

“Please explain to us, what benefits and objectives the central government wants to achieve by making things hard for Terengganu.

“Secondly, isn’t this step of pressuring Terengganu contrary to courtesy and respect which are two of the six pillars of Malaysia Madani?” he asked during his debate on the royal address in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Samsuri said the Madani government would not want to be remembered as an administration that did not settle outstanding oil royalty for 2023.

“My speech is incomplete without me conveying the request of 1.2 million Malaysians living in Terengganu who expect the distribution of petroleum royalties, referred to by the federal government as “wang ehsan” and special funds that we have received for a long time to continue without delays under the schedule that has been in place for decades,” he said.

From 1978 to 1999, the payment of oil royalties had been made by Petronas without the involvement of any third party, he added.

According to a report in Free Malaysia Today, Samsuri previously told the Terengganu assembly that the state had not yet received about RM1 billion from the federal government.

The Terengganu government usually receives the payment of oil royalties twice a year - in March and September.

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