The federal government will pay oil royalty to Kelantan after the withdrawal of the state government's lawsuit against it and Petronas is completed, Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali said today.

He said the state government had begun the withdrawal proceedings which are expected to be settled next month.

“After the proceedings are settled, we will execute what we have promised by making the payment (of oil royalty) directly to the state government,” he said after delivering a talk for the Ministerial Talk Series Programme at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK).

Also present was Deputy Economic Affairs Minister Mohd Radzi Mohd Jidin and UMK vice-chancellor Noor Azizi Ismail.

Azmin said the government had made all oil royalty payments for 2018 to Terengganu while Kelantan only received a portion of the payments for 2018 due to the legal dispute.

Kelantan Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakub renewed the claim for oil royalty with the federal government on Jan 14 at an official meeting with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Putrajaya.

The Kelantan government filed a lawsuit against Petronas over the oil royalty at the High Court in 2011 and began the proceedings to withdraw the suit in October last year.

On another matter, Mohamed Azmin, who is chairperson of the Kelantan state action council, gave the assurance that he would give attention to the development of Kelantan, including UMK, in the effort to improve the socio-economic status of the people in the state.

He said UMK, which specialises in entrepreneurship, had huge potential as an incubator for entrepreneurs who in turn would become the basis for the economic upliftment of the people of Kelantan. - Bernama