Fulfil all obligations to Sarawak in terms of funding, Putrajaya told

KUCHING: The federal government has been urged to honour and fulfil all obligations and responsibilities as stipulated under the Federal Constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963 in allocating federal funds to Sarawak as the state deserves a bigger share.

Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said Sarawak was not given due consideration in the 2019 National Budget despite the state's tremendous contribution to the national economy and federal coffers.

He said the 2019 National Budget saw Sarawak only getting RM4.346 billion out of the total federal development expenditure of RM54.7 billion – only 7.94 per cent – which was a mere increase of RM10 million as compared to previous year.

“In fact, the share of allocation for Sarawak in the 2019 federal development budget is actually a drop as compared to 2018. This is despite the promise made by Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak that the states of Sarawak and Sabah will get 30 per cent of the federal allocation.

“The (2019) annual federal allocation for Sarawak is obviously not enough for the state to bring its level of development to be on par with that of Peninsular Malaysia.

“The (RM10 million) increase is so negligible, taking into consideration the state's huge and challenging task ahead to develop into a high-income economy,” said Wong in his ministerial winding-up speech during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting here yesterday.