KUCHING: The federal government was asked to adopt United Kingdom’s Barnett formula in allocating funds to its respective states.
This means the funds are allocated based on the needs of the state.
Sarawak Patriot Association (SPA) president Datuk John Lau Pang Heng said the government’s intention to change Article 1 (2) of the Federal Constitution is very commendable, but it wants the government to allocate funds based on Sarawak’s needs.
“If the federal government could fulfill so, then every Sarawakian would be very happy,” he told New Sarawak Tribune, today.
He mentioned Sarawak developments need to be at par with other states in West Malaysia. It also needs fund for the development of Score as well as affordable renewable energy to every household in both urban and rural areas and the development of road systems and structures.
“Also as promised by Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the 14th General Election (GE14), we want the federal government to return 50 per cent of the tax collected from Sarawak for development purposes,” he pointed out.
On the Barnett formula, Lau said UK has successfully used it to provide funding to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“This formula is a mechanism used by the Treasury in the United Kingdom to automatically adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to public services in England.
“The federal government can adopt a similar formula to allocate more funds to Sarawak and Sabah,” he pointed out.
Lau said the association proposes that any excess funds by the federal government be equally divided between the three partners in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“This means Peninsular Malaysia will get one-third, Sarawak gets one-third and Sabah gets one-third. This is called equal partnership and brotherhood,” he stressed.
