Rep wants CM to discuss with KL for tax autonomy

SIBU: Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang concurs with Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How in urging the Chief Minister to discuss with the Federal Government into allowing the Sarawak Government to decide whether to collect or continue granting tax exemption to religious bodies under the amended Income Tax Act.

In a press statement yesterday, Chang, who is also DAP Sibu vice chairperson and director of Women’s Affairs’ Bureau, said this was imperative as there were more non- Muslim religious institutions in Sarawak than in anywhere in Malaysia.

She said Christians in Sarawak accounted for 40 per cent of the total Christians in the country, and logically, a substantial sum of the taxes would come from Sarawak.

“The State Government has to take this positive action without delay, as without such a move, the state government’s legislative power over charities, charitable trusts and institutions under the wings of the religious institutions would amount to nothing.

“Article 4(1) of the Federal Constitution spells that the constitution is the supreme law of the country and any law inconsistent with the constitution shall be void,” Chang noted.

She said if the Federal Government did not grant this autonomous power to Sarawak, the Federal law shall prevail and taxes collected from the religious institutions shall go into the federal coffers for federal needs.

“It is time we should channel the resources from our own state back to the people to reduce the development disparity between Sarawak and the Peninsula.”

On the proposed tax on the religious bodies, Chang was sad this had come after the burdening GST implementation in 2015.

“This is a worrying state of the economic affairs when the government has to eye on the ‘so- called income’ of the religious institutions for its tax revenue.”

Chang, also called on all MPs from Sarawak to stand firm in their stance against the implementation of Hudud law.

“To support or not to support a proposed Bill should not depend if it comes from the government or the opposition. Instead, the criteria for deciding to support or not to support a Bill is if it is for the good of all the people in the country.”

The assemblywoman condemned the proposal by Umno to garner more support for Hadi’s Bill by adopting it as a government bill, thereby putting pressure on the BN MPs to support it.

“Our Chief Minister’s stance is correct and admirable when he said in principle, he was against the hudud bill and he would never allow it to be practised in multi-racial Sarawak.

“I urge the Chief Minister not to be pressured by his BN counterparts and to stand firm in this admirable stance.

“We, in the opposition, support him on this.”