Published on: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 |
Kuala Lumpur: The Dewan Rakyat Tuesday was informed that national oil company Petronas contributed RM41.7 billion to the country's income last year, a jump from the RM27.2 billion the previous year.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Senator Datuk Abdul Raman Suliman said the income came in the form of dividend payments, tax, royalties and export duties.
"All the monies were deposited into the Accumulated Funds intended for the country's development expenditure," he said in reply to a question from Alexander Nanta Linggi (BN-Kapit).
Abdul Raman said for the financial year ended March 31, 2006, Petronas recorded a pre-tax profit of RM45.2 billion at company level.
"From that, Petronas paid RM32.4 billion in dividends and taxes to the government, while the royalties and export duties it paid for the year amounted to RM9.3 billion," he said.
For the financial year ended 2005, Petronas had recorded a company level pre-tax profit of RM29.5 billion and from this, it paid RM19.7 billion in dividends and taxes to the government while another RM7.5 billion was paid in royalties and export duties.
"The remaining profits every year are reinvested to finance its operations as well as expand its business within and outside the country," he said.
In reply to an additional question from Alexander who wanted to know why the annual report of Petronas is never tabled at the Parliament, Abdul Raman said the government had no need to do that as the report could be easily obtained by the public including through the company's website.
He also said that Petronas was actively expanding its business into new markets such as Russia but added that it was being done cautiously.
To a question from Datuk Dr Wan Hashim Wan Teh (BN-Gerik), Abdul Raman said Petronas was also among the biggest contributors to the country in terms of work force.
"At the local level alone, Petronas has a work force of 20,000 and only a handful of them are foreign workers.
Worldwide it has more than 30,000 workers," he said.
Wan Hashim had asked if it was true that Petronas did not take care of the welfare of its staff especially in terms of salary, so much so that many had gone over to other companies. - Bernama
