Kota Kinabalu: The State Government has not received data on federal revenue collected in Sabah, despite repeated requests, said Assistant Finance Minister Datuk Julita Mojungki.
She said the State Government submitted 13 requests to obtain the data, but there had been no response.
“Despite 13 requests for data sharing, the Federal Government has yet to provide any response, which has limited the State Government’s ability to calculate the net revenue collected by the Federal Government in Sabah,” she said.
Julita was responding to questions from Moyog Assemblyman Datuk Darell Leiking and Sekong Assemblyman Alias Sani.
She said pending official figures, the State had estimated the amount of Special Grant due using available data and reasonable assumptions from internal studies.
“The State Government has submitted its claim for the Special Grant for the year 2023 to the Federal Government and affirmed its stand to retain the original formula as enshrined under Article 112C and Part IV of the Tenth Schedule of the Federal Constitution, which is two-fifths or 40 per cent of the net revenue collected by the Federation in Sabah,” she said.
She also disclosed that the amount claimed included “the missing years” in which no review had been conducted since 1974. Julita said the interim Special Grant payment to Sabah and Sarawak had been raised to RM600 million in 2025, which the State Government had accepted as an interim settlement to enable payment for the year.
“In line with that increase, the State Government agreed to the new amount as an interim resolution for the purpose of enacting and gazetting a new order and to allow the 2025 payment to proceed,” she said.
She added that negotiations between both governments would continue until a mutually agreed amount is reached.
Julita said the matter had been discussed in the first 2025 Technical Committee Meeting of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 Implementation Action Council (MTPMA63), chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, in Putrajaya on March 13.
“Both governments agreed that a negotiation session will be held on June 30,” she said.
She added that should the negotiations fail, a neutral assessor would be appointed in accordance with Article 112D(6) of the Federal Constitution. – Ricardo Unto
