KOTA KINABALU, Aug 7 — The Sabah government has proposed guidelines for how the federal administration could repay the state for arrears accrued under the Special Grants clause of the Federal Constitution.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said the state sent in a proposal to seek 40 per cent of the previous net revenue derived from Sabah by federal agencies and departments.
“We submitted the draft of the guidelines to implement the payment of the Special Grant on July 9. At the moment, we are waiting for feedback from the federal government,” he told the state assembly today.
Earlier, Tambunan assemblyman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan asked the CM when Sabah could claim the arrears of purportedly RM1 trillion.
The Special Grant is a provision under Article 112C (1)(a) of Part V of the Tenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
Shafie said that after four meetings with the steering committee tasked with reviewing the Malaysia Agreenment 1963 and the Borneo states’ rights, he was confident the federal government and the prime minister were sincere in honouring this.
He agreed with Kitingan that payment was overdue but said the committee needed time to discuss this due to the size of the arrears.
“The state has no precedent of how to calculate this. We need to figure out the amount that was collected from federal agencies like the Inland Revenue Board, Customs, Immigration,” he said.
Shafie said he has ordered Sabah’s Finance Ministry and the state’s Economic Planning Unit to assist with strategies but said the decision was ultimately up to the PM.
After Kitingan pushed him to say if the state could demand an advance or sue over the delay, Shafie said he understood the former’s sentiments but stressed that there were laws and provisions that must be followed.
“I also think that we have to approach this as one country, so dragging Putrajaya to court over this is not the best option to get our claims,” he said.
Shafie disclosed that other proposals made include an increase of oil royalty payments from 5 per cent to 20 per cent, or for Petronas to pay the state dividends and to award Sabah the contracts for oil exploration approved by the government.
