PUTRAJAYA must return to Sarawak and Sabah part of the RM137.035 billion taxes it collected in 2018, said Deputy Sarawak Chief Minister James Masing.

Masing gave two reasons why Putrajaya should return the money.

First and foremost, he said, it is stipulated in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) that the federal government must return a portion of the tax collection to the two Borneo states.

The second reason was that  Pakatan Harapan had promised in its election manifesto to return to the two territories 50% of all taxes collected there.

“(Therefore) the PH government is duty-bound to give Sarawak and Sabah part of the RM137.035 billion tax collected in 2018,” Masing said in Kuching, today.

“Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng can’t wriggle his way out paying us our due.”
 
In the MA63, it is agreed that the federal government is to return 40% of tax revenue collected in Sabah and Sarawak to the two territories
 
However, after 55 years, the federal government has yet to return a single sen of the 40% to Sarawak and Sabah.

Non-compliance with the MA63, the agreement that leaders of Sabah, Sarawak and the federated states of Malaya signed prior to forming the Federation of Malaysia, is a sore point in relations between Malaya and the Borneo territories.

Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru yesterday made a similar demand, pointing out that the amount owed to Sarawak was more than enough to settle the RM2.5 billion that Lim claimed Sarawak owed the federal government. – January 30, 2019.