Sabah seeks federal payment of 40pct undisputed taxes

 

The Sabah state government has sent a letter dated April 10 to the federal government demanding payment of 40 percent for two undisputed types of tax, the Sabah state assembly was informed today.

Deputy Chief Minister II and Sabah Finance Minister Masidi Manjun said the two types of taxes in question are taxes collected by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department and income tax collected by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

For 2025, Masidi (above) said the combined amount of direct taxes (IRB) and indirect taxes (Customs) collected in Sabah was RM7.547 billion, with 40 percent of it estimated to be RM3.019 billion.

"Our stance (the Sabah state government) is that undisputed taxes must be paid first, whether now or later, before we negotiate other taxes that are still under negotiation," he said.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Alias Sani (Warisan-Sekong), who wanted to know the amount of revenue from Customs and IRB taxes handed over by the federal government to the state government.

Masidi noted that the collection of data for both tax revenues is published annually for public knowledge; therefore, it should not raise doubts about making the payment in advance.

Earlier, Alias, in his original question, wanted to know the total amount collected by the federal government in Sabah from 1974 to 2024.

Assistant Finance Minister Chong Chen Bin, when answering Alias's original question, said that the federal government had submitted part of the federal revenue data obtained in Sabah from 1974 to 2025.

He said the data was submitted through meetings of the Special Grant Negotiation Committee at officer level between the federal government and the Sabah government on Jan 28 this year, as well as meetings of the Special Grant Negotiation Working Committee at the officer level on Feb 27 and March 13.

However, Chong said the data cannot be shared publicly or published and is only for meeting purposes.

"Several components of revenue have been listed, consisting of direct taxes, indirect taxes, non-tax revenue, and petroleum revenue involving royalties and petroleum income tax.

"However, all components of this revenue are still subject to negotiation to be considered as Federal revenue obtained in Sabah in the calculation of the special grant," he said.

- Bernama