Sarawak initiates legal action on Petronas over state sales tax
（BorneoPost- BY SAMUEL AUBREY ON NOVEMBER 21, 2019, THURSDAY AT 3:10 PM）
KUCHING: A writ of summons and statement of claim have been filed by the Comptroller of the State Sales Tax and the Sarawak government against Petronas at the High Court registry in Kuching today.

Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali said this action was done to recover the state sales tax owed by Petronas to Sarawak.

“As have been mentioned several times before this, Petronas have not paid the State Sales Tax for petroleum products under the State Sales Tax Ordinance 1998 which is due to the State. As a result, the State Government is left with no choice but to commence legal action for the recovery of the unpaid taxes due,” she said in a statement today.

The statement, however, did not mention the sum amount due to be paid to the Sarawak government.
Sarawak government ministers have for the past few weeks called on Petronas to pay the five percent sales tax.

Minister of Utilities Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom was recently quoted as saying that there will be more deadline extensions for Petronas.

The state sales tax was imposed on January 1, this year, and national oil company is said to be the only oil and gas company operating in the state which has not paid the sales tax.