A KOTA KINABALU: A workable solution on the oil royalty issue involving Sabah and Sarawak is being fine tuned.
Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said national oil and gas company Petronas is considering offering shares of profitable downstream subsidiaries as an alternative to increasing royalty for these two states.
Met after the State BN meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Abdul Rahman said this was one of the issues raised during the discussion.
Also present in the meeting were Chief Minister and Sabah BN chief Datuk Seri Musa Aman, his deputy Datuk Seri Salleh Said and representatives from all the State BN component parties.
"In their mind (Petronas), they believe the oil royalty hike is not the best way to go about it.
"So they are proposing increased shareholding in some profitable Petronas subsidiaries ... maybe even up to the increment we expect for oil royalty.
"So far the state government has no major issue with that kind of solution. We are open to it ... but it is not a straightforward issue and it will be fine tuned, I am sure there will be more meetings between them (State governments) and Petronas.
"As long as we know that at the end of the day we will have more money for the development of Sabah," said Rahman who is also Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government minister.
Earlier, Najib was briefed on key development programmes that needed attention, by the state Economic Planning Unit.
Issues on land acquisition for housing, education and infrastructural projects were brought to his attention in the briefing by the unit’s director Datuk Ismail Abdullah.
Rahman said the prime minister had also reminded state leaders to be prudent in managing resources such as treated water and electricity.
Also present during the briefing were Musa, Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman, state cabinet ministers and BN elected representatives.
