Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) has given written confirmation that the State Sales Tax (SST) imposed by Sarawak would be paid by its seven subsidiaries, including Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, who are directly involved in the sales of petroleum products in the state.

Sarawak Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Department (Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring), Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, in a statement today, said that these subsidiaries are in the process of being registered by the State Comptroller of SST as taxable persons who would be liable for payment of SST to the state government and this process is expected to be completed by Aug 15.

"The Comptroller is now making an assessment of the amount of SST for each of the subsidiaries has to pay for the Year 2019 based upon records of volume of petroleum products actually sold by them and declaration of the sale value thereof provided by these subsidiaries.

"Such assessment would be made by the Comptroller strictly in accordance with the provisions of the State Sales Tax Ordinance, 1998 and the State Sales Tax Regulations 1998 with no discount or waiver would be granted," she said.

Sharifah Hasidah said the state government and the Comptroller of SST had withdrawn the civil suit filed by them against Petronas to recover the tax for the period January to June 2019 amounting to almost RM1.3 billion including penalties for late payment and interest.

Petronas last Monday withdrew its appeal against the Kuching High Court's ruling that Sarawak is entitled to collect sales tax on petroleum products.

The Sarawak government, at the same time, also withdrew its cross-appeal over jurisdiction issue of the High Court on the SST.

A three-man bench of the Court of Appeal comprising justices Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil, Datuk Hadhariah Syed Ismail and Datuk Mohd Sofian Abd Razak struck out the appeal and cross-appeal and ordered each party to bear their own costs.

Sharifah Hasidah said the withdrawal of Petronas' appeal against the High Court decision as well as the state's decision to withdraw their cross-appeal at the Court of Appeal marked the settlement of the issue.

"The State Government will now focus on strengthening PETROS (the state government-owned oil and gas company), Sarawakians and Sarawakian companies' participation in the oil and gas sector in collaboration with Petronas," she added.

-- BERNAMA