Putrajaya Quizzed Over Secret Gazette On Revenue Sharing With Sabah

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Azis Jamman says Sabahans have been robbed of their rights as the 1970 agreement did not go through proper parliamentary processes.KOTA KINABALU: A Warisan leader has questioned why a government gazette on the tax sharing formula on federal revenue collected from Sabah has been kept from public knowledge since 1970.
Sepanggar MP Azis Jamman said he made the discovery after reading a letter from finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz that was addressed to Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Harun and copied to him today.
The letter was in response to Azis’ motion, which was rejected, to refer Tengku Zafrul for disciplinary action for misleading the house over the 40% tax sharing formula, which is provided for under Article 112C of the Federal Constitution.
He said Tengku Zafrul, in his letter, had stated that he did not mislead the house as there was a government gazette on an amendment to use Article 112D as the basis for the annual special grant payment to the state.
The federal and Sabah governments had agreed that the rate for the annual payments would be implemented under Article 112D, rendering the original formula under Article 112C inapplicable.
“This decision (to use Article 112D as the basis for payment) was made on Sept 1, 1969 and gazetted on Sept 17, 1970, during the emergency,” Azis said in a statement here today.
“Why was the gazette classified as secret when it should be public knowledge? I have also checked the government portal but have not found the gazette.”
Azis had submitted the motion against Tengku Zafrul after his remarks on the tax sharing formula contradicted that of a statement issued by Sabah and Sarawak affairs minister Maximus Ongkili.
Ongkili had said that a consensus was reached with Putrajaya whereby Sabah would receive a five-fold increase in annual grants from the federal government.
The finance minister, in his written replies previously, had said the 40% tax formula in Sabah was no longer in use following a new agreement between Sabah and the federal government.
Azis also questioned why the new agreement did not go through proper parliamentary processes.
“Sabahans have been robbed of their rights because the gazette is still in force to this day,” he told FMT in a phone interview.
Sabah has been receiving a fixed annual payment of RM26.7 million from the federal government since the 1970s as a share of revenue collected from the state.
Azis also questioned why no proper amendment had been made since 2011 when all ordinances pertaining to the emergency were abolished. - FMT

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