State PH to ensure S’wak, Sabah get 30 pct of devt expenditure in Budget 2019

KUCHING: Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak will strive to ensure that the national Budget 2019 will include the 30 per cent development expenditure to Sarawak and Sabah, as promised in their manifesto.

PH Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the 30 per cent allocation will be more, in terms of proportion of development expenditure than all the previous budgets of Barisan Nasional (BN) in the past 55 years.

“Under the past 55 years of BN rule, Sarawak and Sabah were only each allocated 10 per cent to 13 per cent of the development expenditures, jointly less than 25 per cent of the total development budget each year,” Chong told a press conference at the DAP headquarters here yesterday.

As for the additional revenue sharing formula proposed by PH for Sarawak, Chong said the original proposal endorsed by the National Pakatan Harapan was that the additional revenue (additional 15 per cent oil royalty and 50 per cent tax revenue) is to be used to finance education and healthcare in Sarawak - with full autonomy given to the state government.

“However, regrettably, this proposal was rejected by the Sarawak government,” said Chong, who is also DAP Sarawak chairman.

After the state government rejected PH’s original proposal, he said the PH federal government had set up a 16-member MA63 Steering Committee comprising five from Sabah and three from Sarawak and eight from Peninsular Malaysia to discuss further on the revenuesharing formula and other matters on devolution of powers.

The committee was initiated by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad to realise provisions enshrined in MA63, and who was appointed as the chairman of the committee.

The committee members are Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo, Transport Minister Anthony Loke and Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

Leaders from Sabah and Sarawak appointed into the committee included Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong, Works Minister Baru Bian, International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leiking, Abang Johari and Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Top government officials sitting in the committee included Chief Secretary to the Government Datuk Seri Ismail Bakar, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk David Wong Dak Wah, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, Sarawak Attorney-General Datuk Talat Mahmood Abdul Rashid and Sabah Attorney-General Zaleha Rose Pandin.

Also among the 16 members of the committee is Universiti Malaya law professor Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi.

Until the MA63 Steering Committee comes up with a new proposal on the revenue sharing formula, he said Sarawak will still continue to get its five per cent oil and gas royalty in addition to a bigger proportion of the development budget.

“Therefore, it is mischievous and ill-intended of the GPS to allege that Sarawak has been deprived of funding after the change of federal government,” he added.

In fact, he said, budgetary allocation for the whole country will shrink due to the consequences of corruption, cronyism and wasteful spending of the previous administration.

He added that it is only through equitable and transparent financial management that the ordinary men and women on the street will get the benefits.

On another note, he said the development expenditure budget will still be channelled to state and federal government agencies or departments in Sarawak as usual.

“The PH government will however leave it to the state government agencies on how they will use the allocation. However, we will ensure that the spending will be transparent and (the budget) used properly,” he added.