Lodge protest over 40% tax collection, Ongkili tells Sabah govt

PETALING JAYA: The Sabah government should lodge a complaint over the 40% tax revenue collected by the federal government that it says should be returned to the state, according to a federal minister.

Sabah and Sarawak affairs minister Maximus Ongkili said he could only facilitate a meeting over the issue if there was a complaint made to the federal government.

“Only then can I call for a meeting. I can’t simply call for a meeting.

“If there’s a genuine complaint, then the state, as a signatory to the MA63 (Malaysia Agreement 1963), must lodge a complaint and a non-compliant demand,” he said at an event yesterday.

At the last state assembly meeting, chief minister Hajiji Noor said that regardless of what had been said at the federal level, Sabah would continue to pursue its rightful claim for the 40% of taxes collected by the federal government to be returned to it.

Hajiji said the state government would continue negotiations on the matter as it was the basis of Sabah’s claim as enshrined in MA63.

Senallang assemblyman Shafie Apdal had earlier asked if the state government would pursue the matter following finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz’s reply in Parliament that the 40% tax formula no longer applied as a new agreement had been reached between Sabah and the federal government.

Shafie said the federal government was constitutionally bound to return the 40% Sabah-derived revenue along with other matters agreed upon in MA63.

Responding to Shafie, Hajiji said the state had never relinquished any of its claims under MA63. — Free Malaysia Today