KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the Kelantan government was paid what it was due for petroleum resources derived from its territory.
He said the federal government allocated the sum to ensure the state could afford to continue providing services to residents.
“I have not read the Kelantan MB statement but as I said I don’t want to fight over what terms are being used.
“We hope we can discuss it rationally without losing emotional control. What’s important is not only the federal government had made payments earlier and at the same time have fulfil requests from Kelantan,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.
Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali had later on clarified that the oil royalty payment made to the state government was done according to the old method.
Currently, the government pays 5 per cent of oil production money to oil-producing states as determined by Petronas.
Lim also asked the Kelantan state government to avoid creating issues out of nothing, with the federal government having come to its aid by providing advance payment to ensure state government staff are paid on time.
“Recently, I received another request from Kelantan to pay some operational costs including civil servants’ salaries amounting to RM100 million and I’ve approved this.
“We are hoping to make this payment in a few weeks, hopefully by the end of this month.
“We are helping Kelantan, so let’s not fight over baseless claims,” he said.
