‘GOVT OBLIGED TO RETURN 40 PC OF SABAH’S NET REVENUE’
This amount should not be equated with development aid, says minister
THE Federal Government is constitutionally obliged to return two-fifths (or 40 per cent) of Sabah’s own net revenue to the state and not in the form of development funds.
International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Darell Leiking said the amount was a fixed revenue for Sabah and should not be equated with development funds.
He said a Barisan Nasional minister had in the past questioned him for bringing up Sabah’s twofifths matter when the Federal Government had already given development funds to the state.
“These are two different issues. The two-fifths is a fixed revenue for Sabah. We must use it responsibly in the state and how we get that exact revenue is another part of negotiations with the Federal Government.
“Due to all the mismanagement in the past and even right up to election, we will never be able to sort it out because the figure is all mixed up with other things. When we asked for it (two-fifths), someone would say the development funds have been given.
“Now, this kind of thinking must be eradicated first because the 40 per cent has nothing to do with development funds,” he said at the launch of the Malaysia Aerospace Industry Seminar here.
Leiking was giving his view on the right wealth-sharing formula in relation to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s recent statement that the Federal Government’s wealth-sharing formula with Sabah and Sarawak would only be implemented when the country’s economy stabilised.
He said that if Sabah did get its two-fifths, the state then must be responsible for some obligation that the Federal Government may find difficult to assist, such as education and health.
“This is something the state can manage with some federal funding and our two-fifths. I think the Federal Government is working on this (40 per cent) and it has been discussed in the federal cabinet.
“Let Lim Guan Eng announce the budget first. Then we will know what his intentions are for the sharing of revenue in Sabah and the federal. Only then can we comment further,” said Leiking.
Speaking at the Malaysia Aerospace Industry Seminar, Leiking encouraged more Sabahans to venture into the industry to make Sabah an aircraft spareparts-producing state, as no such facilities were available at the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park.
He said of the 230 registered aerospace companies, only 10 were from Sabah, with most activities focusing on helicopter and general aviation services, training, and supporting offline maintenance services.
Leiking encouraged the state government to look into and improve the infrastructure to encourage such investments in the state.