Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh
KUCHING: Sarawak recorded RM6.86 billion in revenue last year compared with RM5.91 billion in 2016, said Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.
He said the RM954 million increase in revenue was mainly due to higher receipts from investment dividends, cash compensation in lieu of oil and gas rights and State Sales Tax on crude palm oil.
“Total ordinary expenditure in 2017 was RM5.81 billion, while operating expenditure increased to RM2.31 billion from RM2.26 billion in 2016, a rise of RM47 million or two per cent.
“The higher than expected revenue resulted in a surplus of RM1.05 billion in 2017,” Wong said at the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly’s first meeting here today.
He said the state spent RM4.29 billion as development expenditure in 2017, an increase of RM370 million compared with RM3.92 billion in 2016.
Wong said Sarawak’s labour market remained stable in 2017 and the unemployment rate dropped from 3.3 per cent to 3.0 per cent.
“The number of workers employed increased by 2.8 per cent and 86,223 job vacancies were reported to the Labour Department in 2017.
“The condition of the labour market is anticipated to remain favourable in 2018,” he added. – Bernama