REVENUE COLLECTION AT RM2.22B IN Q1

Amount represents 21.2pc of RM10.51b expected for this year, says minister

SARAWAK recorded a revenue collection of RM2.22 billion for the first quarter, mainly from cash compensation in lieu of oil and gas rights, said Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh.

He said the amount represented 21.1 per cent of the RM10.51 billion estimated revenue for the year, which was expected to

pick up towards the latter part of the year.

“I am pleased to report that the state financial account for the year ended 31 December 2018 has again been accorded with an unqualified report.

“This is the 17th consecutive year that the state earned the clean bill of health,” he said in his winding-up speech for his ministry in the state legislative assembly sitting, here, yesterday.

He also said RM2.87 billion, or 27.7 per cent of the ordinary expenditure of RM10.39 billion, has been expended during the first quarter of this year.

Wong said out of this, RM0.80 billion was for operating expenditure while the balance RM2.08 billion was appropriated to the Development Funds Account.

As for the development expenditure, RM1.69 billion, or 18.6 per cent out of the approved allocation of RM9.073 billion, has been expended for the first quarter of this year, he said.

“Development expenditure is expected to increase progressively in tandem with the ongoing activities during the year,” he said.

He said under the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (11MP), the Sarawak government has approved a total ceiling of RM37.1 billion to implement 1,424 programmes and projects throughout the state.

Out of this, 911 are for physical projects while the remaining 513 are for non-physical projects.

Wong said up to March this year, out of 911 physical projects, 329 projects had been completed while the remaining 582 projects are still at various stages of implementation.

On federal funded projects, he said a sum of RM17.2 billion was approved by the Federal Government to implement various programmes and projects in Sarawak under the 11MP.

With the development gap faced by Sarawak, Wong said the amount was obviously far from enough to develop the state to be on par with its counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia.

“We must be accorded a fair and equitable share of the federal development fund and the Federal Government must take cognisance of the significant contributions by Sarawak, in terms of tax collection and oil and gas revenues to the federal coffers,” he said.