Sabah revenue-sharing not a model for others, says Salleh

Veteran Sabah leader Salleh Said Keruak says the state's position is grounded in constitutional arrangements specific to Sabah and Sarawak.

Salleh Said Keruak, a former chief minister, said framing Sabah’s situation as a benchmark for other states would misrepresent the issue. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA:

 Sabah’s revenue-sharing arrangement with Petronas cannot be a model for other oil-producing states, veteran Sabah leader Salleh Said Keruak said today.

He said Sabah’s fiscal position is grounded in constitutional arrangements specific to Sabah and Sarawak and not general policy or development demands.

“Framing Sabah’s situation as a benchmark for other states misrepresents the issue,” he said in a Facebook post hours after a Treasury official had spoken about revenue-sharing.

“This is not about discretionary funding models, but about addressing long-standing structural and constitutional matters,” said Salleh.

He said any discussion on revenue involving Sabah must begin with full transparency, adding that without open access to data, outcomes cannot be considered fair or credible.

He called for a permanent federal–state joint committee with clear authority, shared data access, and independent technical expertise, to properly resolve revenue calculation and collection issues.

“Ad hoc arrangements and selective disclosures are not sufficient. What is needed is an institutional and permanent mechanism that reflects Sabah’s constitutional position,” said Salleh, who was chief minister of Sabah from 1994 to 1996.

His statement came hours after Treasury secretary-general Johan Mahmood Merican said in an interview with FMT that Malaysia had a proven model to ensure more equitable revenue-sharing between Petronas and oil-producing states.

On growing demands from states for a larger slice of oil and gas revenue, Johan highlighted Petronas’s “win-win” partnership with Sabah, signed in 2021, as a successful example of commercial collaboration.

Over the past year, several states have also pushed for a renegotiation of non-oil revenue-sharing arrangements.

In June 2025, Penang called for Putrajaya to implement a revenue-sharing mechanism involving sales and service tax collected from the state. The following month, Johor regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim called for the federal government to allocate 25% of tax revenue collected in Johor to the state. - FMT