Records show Sarawak has loan arrears — Guan Eng

KUALA LUMPUR: The Sarawak government has been urged to contact the Federal Government for the correct and verified information on its arrears to ensure good cooperation exists between them.

In a statement yesterday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng refuted the Sarawak government’s claim that it had no arrears in the repayment of outstanding loans with the Federal Government as at Dec 31, 2018.

He noted that his ministry’s statement on Sunday referred to figures as at Nov 30, 2018, which comprised outstanding loans of more than RM2.5 billion and arrears of nearly RM50 million.

As for the numbers as at Dec 31, 2018, the Federal Government’s records showed outstanding loans owed by the Sarawak government totalling RM2.43 billion, with arrears of RM46.5 million, Lim said.

On Monday, the Sarawak government issued a statement saying it only owed federal loans amounting to RM2.38 billion as at Dec 31, 2018, and there were no arrears.

Lim said the state government had attacked the Federal Government and questioned why Sarawak, unlike neighbouring Sabah, did not receive its share of the 2018 tourism tax revenue.

“The Sabah government itself has issued a statement denying that it had received its share of the tourism tax revenue as stated by the Sarawak government. Clearly, the Sarawak government made a false allegation with the intent of slandering the Federal Government,” he added.

Lim reiterated that tourism tax revenue collected since September 2017, which had not been paid by the previous government, would be distributed by the current government to the state governments in the first quarter of 2019.