The national oil corporation Petronas should stop spending lavishly on superfluous commodities and share its increased revenue with Malaysians to help them combat the present exorbitant inflation.

lim guan eng interview 290408 06 "The public wants to know how many private jets, aircrafts, helicopters, mansions and luxury cars are owned by Petronas," said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today.

"They want Petronas to stop buying, and if possible sell them, not to organise bountiful overseas trips and costly banquets.

"Will Petronas stop its plenteous expenditure and spend its hard earned cash for the people?" he asked, while reiterating that "the country's oil money is people's money".

He also added that for its part, the state government has cut down on unnecessary expenses, including suspending the purchase 10 Proton Perdana cars for its exco officials, which could cost over RM600, 000.

The state government has also ruled out unnecessary overseas trade missions and has instructed all its executive councillors and top government officials to travel by economic class in the domestic and international flights on official trips.

Adding to these, today the state government decided to suspend the purchase of computer notebook and printer sets for all 40 assemblypersons in the state legislative house, saving an estimated RM300,000.

"We have implemented all these pre-emptive measures since coming to power three months ago.

"The federal government was merely emulating them now," he told a press conference after the weekly state executive councillor meeting in Komtar, George Town.

He was referring to the various cost-cutting measures introduced by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad earlier this week.

Help the needy

Criticising Petronas' lack of transparency and accountability, Lim said the federal government should undertake pro-active steps to channel Petronas profits to the people.

The Penang state government also proposed today to channel Petronas money to aid households earning below RM6,000 monthly.

Lim estimated that this would only cost the oil company a mere RM30 billion per year, a small fraction of the oil company's annual RM85 billion revenue.

The federal government had previously shot down Lim's request to use Petronas money to build the proposed RM4.5 billion second Penang bridge between Batu Maung and Batu Kawan across the Penang channel.