KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is willing to give enough time for negotiations on the 40% net revenue calculations and claims to be finalised, says state Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.
He said looking at the start of the negotiations, meetings and process of calculating this amount, it would only be right to give the appropriate time frame for both parties to reach an agreement.
While many see this matter as a "Sabah issue", it is a national matter that has to be solved jointly, he told the state assembly here on Tuesday (Nov 19).
During the question-and-answer session, Assafal Alian (Warisan-Tungku) suggested involving the Attorney General’s Chambers as the matter involves the Federal Constitution and the Malaysia Agreement 1963.
Earlier, when answering supplementary questions, Masidi said the federal and state governments have different methods of calculation that yielded different results, so the matter was still being negotiated.
Alias Sani (Warisan-Sekong) asked about the full amount owed under the 40% revenue share agreement.
State Assistant Finance Minister Datuk Julita Mojungkir replied that they had yet to receive the exact amount of tax collected from Sabah so far, making the calculation of the 40% difficult.
She said steps had been taken to coordinate the amounts and calculations, while eight letters requesting this information were sent to Putrajaya.
Julita said Sabah welcomed the interim payments and the recent announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to increase the special allocation grant from RM300mil to RM600mil next year; but it will stand firm on using the original formula of recovering the 40% owed.
“We are still waiting for the next (step) from the federal Finance Ministry and I am sure we will get an answer soon,” she added.
