Kota Kinabalu: “The Inland Revenue Board should be truthful about the tax revenues collected in Sabah rather than trying to cover up the truth just because Sabah is now claiming its constitutional share of this revenues” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief, in response to front-pages stories that only RM4 billion federal tax collection was targeted by the IRB from Sabah in 2013 and not RM40 billion as reported earlier.
The RM40 billion was initially announced by the IRB Sabah and they appear to be back-tracking as if to attempt a cover-up now that Sabah is entitled to two-fifths (40%) of the net revenue collected from Sabah.
The Sabah government must do more and investigate into the matter and not be side-tracked by accepting whatever is being pushed down all the time from Kuala Lumpur. It is the duty and responsibility of the Sabah government, first and foremost, towards the State and the people of Sabah not the political masters from Malaya.
Just looking at several preliminary figures, there appears to be basis for an amount of more than RM4 billion. Petronas takes RM17.88 billion from Sabah’s oil and gas. What about the major oil companies producing oil and gas from Sabah? Sabah takes about RM1.1 billion in oil palm levies. Sabah produces about 35% of Malaysia’s crude palm oil output and in 2012 Malaysia’s palm oil export earnings posted a value of RM71.3 billion with RM73 billion targeted for 2013. Government-linked Sime Darby Berhad has 54,278 hectares of plantations while Felda has some 306,000 acres in Sabah. Many public listed plantation companies have most of their plantations in Sabah. Even Yayasan Melaka and Yayasan Selangor have palm oil plantations in Sabah!