Return Sabah’s revenue to solve flood woe: Jeffrey

PETALING JAYA: Deputy Chief Minister Jeffrey Kitingan (pic) has urged the federal government to return Sabah’s revenue so that the state government will be able to resolve its long-standing flood problem.

In a statement, Kitingan, who is also the state agriculture and food industry minister, said Putrajaya still held a lot of the rights to Sabah’s revenue and finances, including a 5pc sales tax from the sale of petroleum and petroleum by-products from the state.

Kitingan called for Putrajaya to give Sabah its share of the 5pc cash payments, which are given to the federal government by law under the Petroleum Development Act 1974.

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He said that the federal government should also return 40pc of Sabah’s net revenue, as stated in Article 112 of the Federal Constitution.

“If the federal government gives us our financial rights and our revenue rights, maybe we would have enough funds to solve some of these (flood) problems,” he said.

“The extra money would add to our capacity to deal with this (flood). Otherwise, we will forever be asking for money to solve our problems.”

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He added that there was already a comprehensive plan costing RM3 billion to alleviate the flood problem in Sabah.

“We need to do this comprehensively, not in bits and pieces because if you do so, you will be chasing the problem rather than confronting it,” he said.

Earlier this week, a town in Tuaran, Sabah was hit by floods, affecting a total of six villages, according to the Malaysian Civil Defence Force.