KOTA KINABALU - Bingkor assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan has called on the Sabah Government to send a letter to the Federal Government to demand that it pay an estimated RM100 billion plus compound interest accumulated and due since 1975. “This must be done before Budget 2016 was finalized.”
“The RM100 billion plus compound interest does not include an increase of the present 5 per cent cash payment or oil royalty to 20 per cent as demanded by the Sarawak Government, which will in Sabah’s case add another RM3.45 billion per annum.”
If the Sabah Government refuses to claim for return of the 40 per cent revenue, he warned, it will lose the right to be the legitimate government. “It should tender its resignation so that the people can elect a new government which cares for the interests, welfare and well-being of Sabahans.”
“The RM100 billion plus includes the 95 per cent oil and gas revenue that the Federal Government collects in Sabah,” added Jeffrey. “The oil and gas component alone could be worth RM8.72 billion based on Budget 2015 figures.”
“The last time that the Federal Government paid the Sabah Government the 40 per cent was in 1974.”
The 40 per cent was Sabah’s entitlement under the Federal Constitution, he stressed. “There was no excuse for the Sabah Government not to claim for the return of this 40 per cent as it was entrenched in the 10th Schedule of the Federal Constitution.”
It was as clear as daylight and the failure of the Federal Government to return the 40 per cent, he cried, was as good as “daylight robbery”.
Jeffrey’s oft-repeated statement on the 40 per cent has an added urgency this time as the Sabah Government was working on its Budget 2016. “The Sabah Government and the Chief Minister should take immediate action to claim Sabah’s 40 per cent of the net revenue collected from Sabah and present it in Budget 2016.”
The claim for the 40 per cent was as simple as the Sabah Government doing up a letter to the Federal Government and sending it immediately, he added. “There appears to be no records of any review since 1973 of the entitlement last paid in 1974.”
Jeffrey was also following up on a recent Sabah Rights Forum organized by Foreign Minister Anifah Aman at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) in Kota Kinabalu as part of his Ministry’s Outreach Programme. Constitutional lawyer Edmund Bon presented a paper during the Forum on the 40 per cent due to the Sabah Government.
The 10 per cent export duty on petroleum exports could add another RM21.02-RM31.02 billion to Budget 2016, said Jeffrey, making Sabah the richest income generating state in Malaysia. “The Sabah Government should ask for reimbursement of the 10 per cent export duty on all oil and gas exported from Petronas oil and gas output from Sabah.”
“This was another item highlighted by Edmund as Sabah’s entitlement of up to 10 per cent export duty also under the 10th Schedule.”
This 10 per cent export duty was potentially worth RM2.3 billion for 2016 if the Budget 2015 forecast of the 5 per cent oil royalties or cash payment of RM1.15 billion was used as a yardstick, he said.
The 40 per cent entitlement, according to Jeffrey, includes Federal income tax, the RM1.2 billion expected from GST and other revenues of Federal Departments and agencies which could be worth another RM10-RM20 billion.
All this could be very much higher if incomes generated by international oil companies operating in Sabah’s oil and gas fields with Petronas are added he said, along with Felda with its massive 306,000 acres plantation and major oil palm plantations such as Sime Darby, IOI, KL-Kepong and many other businesses who are not Sabah-based but have major operations in the state. - FMT
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.