Committee set up to oversee the State's special grant issue
Published on: Saturday, November 28, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The State Government is taking a pragmatic step in tackling the issue of Sabah's special grant which is 40 per cent of the net revenue collected by the Federal Government from the State."The State Cabinet had discussed the matter at length and approved the setting up of a Special Revision on Sabah Special Grant Committee. This committee is currently headed by the Special Tasks Minister and its members comprise senior State officers as well as professional representatives such as lawyers and accountants," said Special Tasks Minister Datuk Teo Chee Kang.Teo was winding up for the Chief Minister's Department at the Assembly.
ADVERTISEMENT
The committee held its first meeting on Nov 13 and Teo assured that the committee will ensure that the interests of Sabah will be protected when the time comes to conduct a meeting with the Federal Government.Teo, however, rebuked Bingkor Assemblyman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan who had said that the special grant is worth between RM10b and RM20b a year."This gave the wrong impression and meant that the State Government should have received that big amount of money. Actually, the grand total of net revenue collected by the Federal Government from the State in 2014 was about RM4b only."It is therefore impossible that the 40 per cent special grant could reach RM10 to RM20b. Therefore, I advise Jeffrey not to simply pick a figure from the sky and give false hope to the people of Sabah," he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 40 per cent entitlement for Sabah is a legitimate claim under the Federal Constitution, entrenched in the 10th Schedule of the constitution.Last month, Teo had said that he thought the Federal Government should reopen negotiations to revise the amount of Special Grant for Sabah, saying that after a review was done in 1969 to determine the allocation to Sabah for the following five years, there has not been any review.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Special Grant for Sabah had stayed at RM26.7m since 1974, a mere pittance compared to the formula enshrined in the Federal Constitution, considering the Federal Government derived huge amount of revenues from Sabah year in year out in the form of import and export tax, income tax and now, GST.Regarding the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), Teo said he had been given the responsibility to collect information on UEC, conduct studies and prepare a report for the Chief Minister and the State Cabinet, from which a concrete decision will be made on whether to recognise the certificate in the State."I am pleased to report that we have conducted talks and discussions with the United Chinese School Committees Association Sabah (Dong Zong Sabah) on Oct 1 and the United Chinese School Committees Association Malaysia (Dong Zong Malaysia) on Oct 22.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
