By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — A Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmaker today urged the government to stop what he called excessive "bleeding" of the national oil company Petronas' profits which, he alleges, were being used to finance wasteful spending.
Calling Petronas the "government's ATM", he said the company's profits had fallen steadily in recent years and the government was now risking the oil giant's capacity to continue generating income for the country.
"The contribution by Petronas to the government has increased from RM19 billion in 2004 to RM43.9 billion in 2006 to an expected RM 67.8 billion in 2009," said the DAP's Petaling Jaya MP Tony Pua (picture).
"The resulting impact is that there is a drastic reduction in retained profits for re-investments, and re-investments are imperative as Malaysia’s oil reserves are expected to last for another 20 years or so," he added.
From 2001 to 2006, the operational cost of the federal government was only some RM78 billion but in 2009 that increased to RM150 billion.
Operational spending includes services and supplies, debt service charges and emoluments, accounting for almost 75 per cent of the total budget for last year.
PR leaders, citing economists' estimation of the Budget deficit to be at an alarming 9 per cent, alleged that the escalating operating costs, due to corruption, have seeded the fiscal setback.
"This has resulted in the inevitable temptation to dip into the Petronas coffers," said Pua.
He added that capping the profit contribution to 50 per cent for future investments and ensuring that they are invested in economically productive and necessary sectors such as human capital and renewable energy can help maintain Petronas profitability.
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PETRONAS reinvestment value also decreases and compare to other multinationals, it is about half it should be.