By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Jan 21: One of the government representatives in the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) Board of Directors would have to step down to make way for Sarawak’s representative and would be reappointed back into the Board once the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN) Act 1995 is passed in Parliament.
Deputy Prime Minister Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof said the IRB has a composition of three government representatives and non-government representatives who have the expertise in finance and tax.
“Supposedly, we have to table a Bill to amend the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (LHDN) Act 1995 in Parliament this term.
“However, during the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Technical Committee meeting yesterday, the Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim has decided to directly appoint Sarawak Financial Secretary (Dato Sri Dr Wan Lizozman Wan Omar) into the IRB Board.
“This means one of the Board members representing the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has to resign and we will reappoint the MOF representative back into the Board after the LHDN Act is tabled and passed in Parliament,” he told reporters after the presentation of contributions to the needy of Sungai Tengah Matang in conjunction with Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration at Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Hall at Jalan Sungai Tengah here today.
Fadillah who is the Minister in charge of facilitating MA63 negotiations, also commented on the special annual grant to Sabah and Sarawak under Article 112D where Sabah and Sarawak would receive RM260 million and RM300 million, respectively.
He mentioned that previously, Sabah and Sarawak only received RM25 million and RM16 million, respectively.
“Under the Inter-governmental Committee (IGC) report, the special grant must be reviewed every year. But this did not happen in the past.
“Sabah actually had negotiations with the ‘Keluarga Malaysia’ Federal government (under Prime Minister Dato Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob) where they had agreed in the interim (on a certain amount) but Sarawak did not agree to it unless there is a formula.
“Therefore, after the meeting (yesterday), we have achieved a consensus on the special grant although the formula has not yet been finalised. We will finalise it and with this, we hope to have a clear justification on the annual allocation,” he said.
Also present were Fadillah’s wife Datin Sri Ruziah Mohd Tahir and Tupong assemblyman Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman. — DayakDaily
