PUTRAJAYA wants to give Sabah its 40% net revenue as stipulated under the Malaysia Agreement 1963, but currently there is not enough money in its coffers to do this, said Lim Guan Eng.

The finance minister denied that the federal government was deliberately dragging its feet on the matter.

“We want to give back what is owed to Sabah.

“But how can we do it if we don’t have enough money?” Lim was quoted as saying by The Star online during a press conference at the Sabah DAP congress today.

Lim said matters on state revenue and MA63 were being looked at under a special committee set up by the federal government.

“Let us get our financial situation back on track first, we want to prevent Malaysia from going bankrupt,” he was quoted as saying.

Lim said nevertheless, the government had increased its allocation for Sabah in Budget 2019.

“The overall budget allocated to Sabah has been increased, even the emolument for Eastern Sabah Security Command personnel has been increased,” he said.

Lim noted that the development funds for Esscom were more than doubled from RM36.7mil in 2018 to RM74.5mil for 2019.

Lim said the emolument allocation was increased from the existing RM14.9mil to RM17mil for 2019. Funds for Esscom services have also risen from RM19.2mil to RM25.6mil for 2019. – November 25, 2018.