KUCHING, Oct 17: Gabungan Parti Sarawak parliamentary chief whip Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof believes it is ridiculous to say the state bears a share of RM25.9 billion development budget not directly allocated to Sabah and Sarawak.
Fadillah said Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen should not act like one who colluded with the peninsula-based federal government to justify their inability to meet their promises and deprive Sarawak and Sabah of their rightful and promised allocations in Budget 2020.
He added that Chong, in a statement yesterday, said that RM9.6 billion (Sarawak RM4.5 billion, Sabah RM5.1 billion) is equivalent to 31.9 per cent of the total development budget (state-specific development expenditure of RM30.1 billion), hence fulfilling Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto promise of 30 per cent of all development budget.
Fadillah argued that Sabah and Sarawak should receive 30 per cent of the total development budget of RM56 billion, if Pakatan’s election manifesto was anything to go by.
“Chong justifies this ridiculous calculation by claiming that Sabah and Sarawak must also bear a share of the RM25.9 billion development budget that is not directly allocated to Sabah and Sarawak as he claims that Sabah and Sarawak also benefits from this.”
“This is not what was promised by Pakatan. A 30 per cent share of development expenditure of RM56 billion for Sabah and Sarawak does not work out to be RM9.6 billion. It should be RM16.8 billion,” said the Petra Jaya MP in a statement.
Fadillah said Sabah and Sarawak will not benefit from the federal government’s allocation to reduce toll rates in Peninsular Malaysia, which is expected to cost billions as GPS government had abolished all tolls in Sarawak.
“Neither do we benefit from the ECRL (East Coast Rail Link), the MRT2 (Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya Line), the LRT3 (Bandar Utama – Klang Line) and other projects in Peninsular Malaysia funded by the Federal Government.
“So for DAP to suggest that Sabah and Sarawak should also bear a part of those allocations is ridiculous.”
Fadillah said Chong who is also Sarawak Pakatan chief, as a son of Sarawak, should first start by insisting that Sabah and Sarawak will get RM16.8 billion for development expenditure in Budget 2020 – not RM9.6 billion, 20 per cent oil and gas royalty and the 50 per cent revenue collected from Sabah and Sarawak.
“A promise is a promise. As a son of Borneo, Chong must fight for us, not fight with the federal government against us,” said Fadillah.
Chong was reported as saying that that both Sarawak and Sabah are actually getting a combined 31.9 per cent from the state-specific Development Expenditure (DE) of Budget 2020.
He said under Budget 2020, RM30.1 billion of the RM56 billion provided under the DE are state-specific, while the remaining RM25.9 billion is for general application across the country.
“Out of this RM30.1 billion DE, Sarawak and Sabah are allocated a total RM9.6 billion, thus bringing it to 31.9 per cent, with Sarawak getting 14.95 per cent and Sabah getting 16.94 per cent,” he explained. — DayakDaily
