Lim Guan Eng. Bernama file photo
KUCHING: Sarawak government should not make allegation about the RM2.7 million tourism tax distribution considering that as of Nov 30, 2018, the state government still owed more than RM2.5 billion to the Federal Government, with arrears of nearly RM50 million, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
“Since the Sarawak government has a big reserve why not settle the debt to the federal government?” Lim asked in a press statement today.
Of late, he said, key leaders from Sarawak have made several baseless allegations against the federal government with the intention to incite hatred among Sarawakians towards the federal government, with the latest from Minister of Tourism Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
On Jan 3, Abdul Karim claimed that the Sarawak government has not received the RM2.7 million tourism tax collection which is rightfully Sarawak’s from the federal government even though neighbouring Sabah had received theirs.
In response, Lim said the claim by Abdul Karim was not true and as a state minister, he should be responsible and professional as well as not to be overly dependent on accusation simply to smear the reputation of the federal government.
Lim clarified that other states including Sabah have not received their share of the tourism tax from the federal government.
In noting that the federal government will not be selective in distributing tourism tax collection, Lim said as of now, there had not been any distribution of tourism tax to the state governments.
He also said that tourism tax collection remains the revenue of the federal government and that there is no legal provision that states would getting any share from it.
“Even though the previous government did not put effort to share the tourism tax collection, the Pakatan Harapan government had announced in 2019 National Budget that 50 per cent of the tourism tax revenue collected from the states will be shared with the states starting this year.”
Lim said the distribution of the 50 per cent tourism tax collection will be made to all state governments within the first quarter of 2019.