KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will be paying the government an additional RM30 billion in special dividend under the 2019 Budget.
This will push Petronas’ total dividend commitment to RM54 billion to help the government plug in the repayment of the Goods and Services Tax and income tax refunds of RM37 billion.
The national oil company, in a statement yesterday, assured that the special dividend payment would not in any way impede its operations.
”Given Petronas’ strong fundamentals and liquidity position that is driven by the transformation efforts in the last few years in the areas of operational efficiency, cost reduction and portfolio optimisation and supported by improved oil prices, the company is confident that the special dividend payment will not in any way impede our ability to service debts, fund our ongoing operations and invest in future growth,” it said in a statement issued after the tabling of the 2019 Budget.
Earlier, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the government expected to receive RM261.8 billion revenue next year, including a one-off special dividend of RM30 billion from Petronas.
The special dividend, he said, would be used towards repaying the GST and income tax refunds of RM37 billion.
“We are grateful that Petronas, as a company has been run in an extremely prudent fashion and has been able to accumulate the above reserves which can be shared with the Government, without jeopardising its ability to invest for its future growth,” Lim said.
On August 30, Petronas chief executive officer Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee announced the group’s’ initial dividend commitment of RM24 billion.
With the special dividend, the dividend payment to be made by Petronas would total to RM54 billion.
In the budget report, the share of petroleum-related revenue to the total revenue after excluding the special dividend is estimated to increse slightly to 19.5 per cent next year compared to 21.7 per cent in 2018.
Petroleum royalty is forecast at RM5.6 billion in consonance with the modest assumption of crude oil price.