S’wak’s debt to federal govt ‘totally unrelated’
KUCHING: Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has defended himself against accusations of politicising the RM2.7 million in tourism tax revenue owed to the state by the federal government.
He told The Borneo Post that he was ‘surprised’ by a press statement issued by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng over his statement, which was in response to a query by a member of the media over the non-payment of tourism tax collected from and due to Sarawak since September 2017.
“Am I politicising or uttering ‘fitnah’ (slander) in my process of asking what is due and owed to the state over a subject matter that has been promised and pledged by the previous Minister of Tourism and the present Minister of Finance?
“There is no intention to defame, politicise or ‘fitnah’ anybody here but as the minister looking after Sarawak tourism, I was just asking what was promised and due whether from the previous federal government or the present federal government.
“What I did was just to inform and request for the tax due and owed to Sarawak be paid,” he said.
Abdul Karim also said he was in Sabah recently where he enquired whether the state had received its share of the tourism tax, and was told that it had been paid.
According to him, it had already been announced in Parliament that 50 per cent of tourism tax collected by any state would be channelled back to the respective state for the purpose of tourism development and activities.
“The exact amount of tourism tax collected from Sarawak is known, so what is delaying the remittance?
“For the record, the amount of RM4,653,302 in tourism tax was collected from Sarawak for the period September 2017 to September 2018 as furnished by the federal tourism ministry, and half of that should be remitted back to Sarawak,” he said.
Abdul Karim further said that he failed to understand why Lim would get ‘so emotional and blow his top’ to the point of asking Sarawak to settle its outstanding debt to the federal government, which he said was something totally unrelated.
“Be a gentleman and address the issue professionally. Sarawak’s loan or debt owed to the federal government has its own terms and conditions of repayment.
“It is not for me to dwell into that subject matter as I know that is for the Sarawak government to address, and I know the state government knows its obligation in paying its loan or debt.
“I hope Minister Guan Eng does not play politics but just do his utmost to improve the Malaysian economy – and that includes Sarawak too!”