Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng disagrees with Moody's Investors Service's decision to downgrade Petronas' outlook from stable to negative.
Speaking on radio station BFM this morning, he said the credit rating agency should not base its outlook on the RM30 billion one-off special dividend given by the firm to the government.
"I would personally think – of course, that may not be agreed by Moody's – that when you do a rating analysis, you look at the performance of the company.
"I think the performance of Petronas has been absolutely sturdy," he said when interviewed on BFM's 'Breakfast Grille' programme.
Lim added that the special dividend has nothing to do with the uptick in oil prices in 2018.
"Many would think that the one-off special dividend come from increased oil prices this year.
"No, we will not able to maximise oil revenue due to supply shock, following the breakdown in a gas oil field in Sabah, which resulted in a drop of revenue by RM4 billion," he said.
"The rating agencies clearly understand that we are not too reliant on this oil revenue," he said.
Beside the RM30 billion one-off dividend, Petronas needs to pay an RM24 billion regular annual dividend to the government next year.
The special dividend will be used to fully settle Putrajaya's outstanding tax refunds, which is estimated at RM37 billion, comprising RM18 billion in income tax and RM19 billion in goods and services tax (GST) refunds.
In a statement issued on Nov 8, Moody's affirmed the A1 domestic issuer and foreign currency senior unsecured ratings of Petronas, but changed the stable outlook to negative.
Moody's senior vice-president Vikas Halan explained that Petronas' financial profile may deteriorate if the government continues to ask the national oil company to keep dividend payments high, especially if oil prices decline.
During the radio interview, Lim said that rating agencies expressed their concern about Putrajaya's fiscal deficit in a meeting last weekend.
"But they were also encouraged by us carrying out the institutional reform, which includes tabling a Government Procurement Act, a Fiscal Responsibility Act, as well as a plan to change the basis of accounting from cash basis to accrual basis," he said.
