KUCHING: Giving 20 per cent oil royalty to Sarawak is “not workable” without assuming fiscal responsibility in healthcare and education autonomy, says Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei.
“Initially, the deal was that the 20 per cent oil royalty will only be given to Sarawak with the condition that the state has to take up the responsibility in education and healthcare.
“It comes in a package,” he explained when met by reporters after a Mooncake Festival do with KMC Flats residents, Jalan Ban Hock here, Sunday night.
He said this following Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement last Friday that giving 20 per cent oil royalty to Sabah and Sarawak “is not workable”.
Wong further stated that previously, the federal government (under Fiscal Decentralisation: Taxation & Public Revenues) would give 20 per cent oil and gas royalty or value equivalent as well as 50 per cent of all tax revenues collected in Sarawak back to the state if the state took over autonomy in education and health.
“The 20 per cent royalty shall be included in use for the state’s healthcare and education expenses and the surplus will be up to the state government for their arrangement on how to use.
“Unfortunately, that proposal was not accepted by the state government and instead, the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition will negotiate a new proposal with Dr M.
“It (Dr M’s statement) is of course ‘not workable’ per se, because it is not like we are not giving the 20 per cent royalty but the package was not accepted by them,” he pointed out.
“As long as it is beneficial to Sarawakians, we will definitely support it but we have to be more practical and rational as we have to make sure that the country will not collapse at the price of us asking for 20 per cent oil royalty,” he added.
