Azmin: We meant ‘cash payment’, not ‘royalty’

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Harapan’s election promise of giving 20% royalty to oil-producing states was based on a loose definition of the word, says Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.

“The term cash payment is not used but is generally understood to mean royalty.

“That is why when we drafted Pakatan’s manifesto, we used the term royalty but not in the context of its dictionary meaning,” Azmin said during his ministerial reply on the motion of thanks on the royal address in Parliament yesterday.

The Economic Affairs Minister noted that the agreement under Section 4 of the Petroleum Development Act referred to cash payment of 5% of gross profit per barrel of oil and not royalty.

He said that a special Cabinet committee had been formed to negotiate with the oil-producing states on how to increase the 15% payments to them, apart from the existing 5% under the Act.

Earlier, Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof had to restore order in the House when Azmin was heckled by several Opposition lawmakers.

They insisted that Pakatan had reneged on its promise of giving 20% royalty on gross production of oil by Petronas.

Earlier, Azmin told the House that Khazanah Nasional Berhad had invested some RM80mil in a failed online lingerie business.

“Khazanah had invested in the online business, involving bras and lingerie.

“The business eventually failed and the losses had to be written off,” he said.

Azmin said Khazanah had also written off RM3bil over a deal to take over a bank.

He was responding to a question by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak (BN-Pekan), who wanted to know how Khazanah had deviated from its agenda.

Azmin said that Khazanah would be revamped to ensure that the sovereign fund returned to its original aim of owning and safeguarding national assets.