KUALA LUMPUR: The government collected RM158 million in taxes from petrol and diesel sold to industrial and commercial users in January and February 2015, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said.

The sectors included the aviation, construction, mining, manufacturing and logging industries.

“The total tax collected on the sales of petrol and diesel sold to industry and commercial sectors for January and February 2015, amounted to RM158 million,” said Najib in a written parliamentary reply to Pandan member of parliament Rafizi Ramli.

Rafizi, who is also PKR vice-president, had asked Najib, who is the finance minister, to state the amount of taxes collected since January 2015 on petrol and diesel sales to industrial and commercial users. Rafizi had also asked Najib to name the industries which had to pay the taxes.

Speaking to reporters at the parliament lobby yesterday, Rafizi said Najib’s reply had confirmed the reason why prices of goods did not come down in tandem with the fall in international crude oil prices.

Rafizi said this was because a tax was secretly charged to manufacturing industries since January.

“I estimate the total tax collection in 2015 can be up to RM900 million,” Rafizi said.

He said small and medium enterprises would be hit by the tax, because most of them use petrol and diesel.

Rafizi said he had seen a circular issued by the Finance Ministry to petrol companies, requesting them to collect taxes on petrol and diesel sales to industrial and commercial users since January 2015.

The tax was specified in sen and not as a percentage of fuel prices, according to him. “The petrol company would just tell the customer that the price has gone up,” Rafizi said.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 2, 2015.