Sabah seeks ruling on revenue declarations by companies

 

Sabah Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun says the state government is seeking an official ruling to standardise revenue and tax declarations by companies operating in Sabah. – NSTP pic

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government is seeking an official ruling to establish a standard method for companies operating in the state to declare their revenue and taxes.

State Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said some companies operating in Sabah but based elsewhere were declaring their revenue outside the state.

"This ruling aims to ensure consistent compliance by companies and enable revenue tracking and verification to be carried out in a transparent and auditable manner, while avoiding differences in interpretation or future disputes," he said.

Masidi said the request was among the matters raised in official letters submitted to the Finance Ministry on Feb 9 and March 5.

He said that certain taxes were administered by the federal government through agencies such as the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) and the Customs Department.

"Any changes to the revenue collection mechanism would require comprehensive consideration from the legislative, implementation and federal government perspectives," he said.

He was responding to an adjournment motion tabled by appointed assemblyman Datuk Roger Chin during the State Legislative Assembly sitting.

Masidi said the state government had taken note of the proposal to adopt a collection-at-source approach to strengthen revenue collection without affecting the constitutional principle of revenue sharing.

However, he said the proposal should be considered separately from negotiations on Sabah's Special Grant under Article 112C of the Federal Constitution.

"Negotiations on the Special Grant concern Sabah's constitutional financial rights and do not depend on the implementation of any new revenue collection mechanism, including the proposed collection-at-source approach," he said. - NST