KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has reportedly promised that Kelantan will receive full oil royalty if the coalition prevails in the upcoming general election (GE15).
The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president reportedly said that this is one of the pledges by the coalition to the PAS-led state government.
“Another focus will be on education and creating jobs for young people. For this, we must attract more investments and create new industry sectors in Kelantan,” he was quoted saying by English daily New Straits Times.
He then claimed that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration only paid Kelantan RM400 million in total during the coalition’s 22 months stint as the federal government.
Muhyiddin was part of that same administration before his party retracted support from PH to form the Perikatan Nasional government.
In its manifesto in 2018, PH said it would increase the royalty payment to Sabah and Sarawak, and other oil-producing states, to 20 per cent or of its value equivalent, so that the respective states can take over and fund more of their own development activities.
Under the Petroleum Act 1974, state oil producer Petronas will enter into an agreement with the state governments and pay them 5 per cent of the oil production.
Kelantan is currently governed by the Islamist party PAS.
In 2018, Bersatu contested 11 state seats in Kelantan and lost all of them.
The Election Commission has announced that Malaysia will go to polls on November 19.
