KOTA KINABALU, Aug 2 — The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB) is keeping an eye out for Sabah timber companies allegedly involved in illegal logging activities in the state.

Its CEO Datuk Seri Sabin Samitah said today they were monitoring news reports on the issue and were "eager” to find out which companies were involved in the illegal logging activities.

"The government, particularly the State, is losing a lot of revenue due to illegal logging and we will get to the bottom of this,” said Sabin after paying a courtesy call to the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal at the State administrative building.

News reports earlier today claimed that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) were conducting simultaneous raids on three logging companies in Sandakan and Tawau, as well as the Sabah Forestry Department headquarters in Sandakan.

It is understood its personnel were looking for licensing documents and logging deals under the previous government.

The raids come after claims from Shafie that many timber concessionaires were running illegal activities or involved in lopsided deals under the previous government and announced that the state was planning to review all concessionaires.

Meanwhile, Sabin said IRB has an RM4.3 billion target in revenue collection from the State for 2018 and expressed confidence that this was attainable.