PREMIER Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg has assured that the state government will continue to implement revenue reengineering initiatives which will focus on measures to broaden the state’s revenue base and strengthen revenue monitoring and collection mechanisms leveraging on digitalisation.
“For the information of this august House, we have introduced State Sales Tax (SST) on timber products with effect from June 1 this year. To date, we have collected RM8 million in revenue from this source.
“In the efforts to diversify our revenue base, we are introducing a Bill entitled Environment (Reduction of Green House Gases Emission) Bill 2023 which allows the imposition of levy on carbon trading and the emissions of carbon or other greenhouse gases (GHG) from activities and processes by the economic sectors in Sarawak,” he said.
He was tabling the Supply (2024) Bill on the first day of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting today.
Abang Johari said the state government should continue to be innovative in finding ways of raising additional revenue to fund the cost of state’s administration, meeting the high expectations for development by the rakyat and ensuring long-term financial sustainability.
“During recent tabling of the 2024 Federal Budget, the federal allocation to Sarawak for development purposes increased from RM5.6 billion to RM5.8 billion. I would like to thank the federal government for this increase. However, the allocation represents only 6.4 per cent of the total Federal Development Budget of RM90 billion for 2024.
“It is obviously far from enough to meet our development needs and address the imbalances between Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia – our federal counterpart knows this very well,” he said.
Considering Sarawak’s significant contribution to the national economic growth and the federal coffers, especially revenue from oil and gas, Abang Johari urged Putrajaya to provide a bigger allocation to Sarawak in the future.
