KOTA KINABALU: A senior official and a retired officer of the state government have been remanded for seven days to help in an alleged corruption case involving crude palm oil sales tax amounting to hundreds of millions.

       The duo were brought before magistrate Stephanie Sherron Abbie, who allowed for the remand order to proceed from May 19 to 25.

       The senior official, who is with the state Finance Ministry, and the retired senior officer were arrested at around 11am on Wednesday (May 18), after they were called to the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) Sabah headquarters here to have their statements recorded.

       It is learnt that anti-graft investigators have been probing the evasion of millions of ringgit of Sabah crude palm oil sales tax for several months.

       According to MACC sources, the two are believed to have received RM700,000 in bribes from a palm oil mill in Lahad Datu to "overlook" the mill's falsification of the quantity of crude palm oil produced to evade state taxes worth about RM2mil a month since 2015.

       The state could have lost palm oil tax revenue of between RM150mil and RM200mil over the years, the sources said, adding that it involved a company with its headquarters in Peninsular Malaysia.

       Sabah MACC director Datuk S. Karunanithy said the case is being investigated for soliciting and accepting bribes under Section 17 (a) of the MACC Act 2009.

       More suspects are expected to be hauled in soon.