Lim accuses Sarawak government of ‘fitnah’ over RM2.7 million tourism tax, questions why state has not settled RM2.5 billion debt to Putrajaya
Lim Guan Eng
KUCHING: The Sarawak government should not make baseless accusations against the federal government over the RM2.7 million tourism tax distribution, considering that it still owed Putrajaya over RM2.5 billion as at Nov 30, 2018, with arrears of nearly RM50 million.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, who said this, pointed out that of late, key leaders from Sarawak had been making ‘baseless accusations’ against the federal government with the intention to incite hatred among Sarawakians.
“The latest allegation was from Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah who on Jan 3, 2019 claimed that the Sarawak government has not received RM2.7 million in tourism tax collection, which is rightfully Sarawak’s, from the federal government even though neighbouring Sabah has received theirs,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Lim dismissed Abdul Karim’s claim and said that as a state minister, the latter should be ‘more responsible and professional’ and not be overly dependent on accusations simply to smear the reputation of the federal government.
“The Finance Ministry would like to state that other states, including Sabah, have not received their share of the tourism tax from the federal government.
“Firstly, the federal government did not discriminate against Sarawak by distributing the tourism tax share to other states, but not to Sarawak.
“Secondly, tourism tax from a legal standpoint is the federal government’s revenue which the states are not entitled to,” he added.
Lim, however, pointed out that although the previous federal administration did not attempt to share and distribute the tourism tax revenue to the states, the Pakatan Harapan government had and, during the 2019 Budget speech, announced the sharing of 50 per cent of tourism tax collected by each state starting this year.
He said the amount of tourism tax for 2018 would be finalised soon, and that 50 per cent of the amount would be distributed to all states in the first quarter of this year.
“It is proper that the Sarawak government not ‘fitnah’ (slander) the federal government over the distribution of RM2.7 million, especially when it owes the federal government over RM2.5 billion with nearly RM50 million in arrears. Given that Sarawak has large reserves, why doesn’t it settle its debt to the federal government?” asked Lim.
Meanwhile, Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh told The Borneo Post in March 2016 that Sarawak’s total outstanding debt to the federal government was a soft loan – the bulk of which was used to provide basic facilities in rural areas.
Wong said it was a normal practice for state governments to apply for loans for development, apart from the usual allocations and grants given by the federal government.
“The total loan of RM2.5 billion was an accumulated amount provided by the federal government to the state government.
“It is in the form of a soft loan with easy repayment terms that is with lower interest rates as compared to commercial loans and long repayment tenure. The money from the soft loan has been utilised for productive purposes to support the much-needed economic development of the state.
“In the case of Sarawak, it is mainly for the implementation of water supply projects particularly rural water supply, development of industrial estates, oil palm plantations (smallholder schemes) and low-cost housing for the low-income group,” he said.
Wong was commenting then about a report in Parliament that Sarawak ranked third among the states which owed the federal government outstanding debts.
Pahang topped the list then with an outstanding debt of RM2.9 billion, followed by Sabah with RM2.6 billion and Sarawak, RM2.5 billion.