By Wilfred Pilo
KUCHING, Oct 14: The passing of the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (Amendment) Bill 2023 on Oct 11 for Sarawak and Sabah government representatives to be on the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) is a positive development that will ensure a fairer distribution of funds.
Elaborating on this, Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performance Arts Sarawak (MTCP) Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the Borneo States’ representation in IRB is in line with the Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) Report.
“That is why every year, apart from royalty payment under the provision of Article 112D of the Federal Constitution on revenue sharing formula, we also receive contributions from the federal government to Sabah and Sarawak,” he said to reporters at the Padawan Raft Safari 2023 press conference at Serapi Hotel Satok today.
He said this was among the matters agreed on, but the prime minister at that time was asked to step down, which is why the revenue contribution stopped in 1969.
According to Abdul Karim, Sarawak never protested as it was difficult due to the Internal Security Act 1960.
“What is given, we accept—they give, we take, like that. But with the passing of the amendment bill, it will be different as the more resources the federal (government) gets from Sabah and Sarawak, the more we should have.
“That is why I respect Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to consider the special grant of RM300 million to Sabah and Sarawak as interim. This is to enable calculations, and discussion with these two State governments could be arranged in terms of agreeable percentages,” he said.
Abdul Karim said the federal government probably extracted some RM80 billion from Sarawak last year.
“From that, Sarawak could decide how much percentage we could get from the federal government, but the percentage could fluctuate. This applies to Sabah, and both regions could get more or vice versa but not less than RM300 million.
“This time, our request is honoured by the unity government, and with a representative in IRB, we will know what transpires from now onward,” he said. — DayakDaily
