KUCHING: A Sarawak cabinet minister is puzzled why Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng got emotional and blew his top over Sarawak’s request for payment of its tourism tax share.
Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah also questioned Lim’s motive of bringing up the outstanding loan Sarawak owed to the federal government in matters involving the tourism tax issue.
“Why must Minister Guan Eng get emotional, blow his top and ask Sarawak to pay back its outstanding loan to the federal government which is totally unrelated to the subject matter in question?” he asked.
Karim, who is Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister, urged the Finance Minister to be a gentleman and to address the issue (tourism tax) professionally.
He said all he did was just to request for the payment of the tax due and owing to Sarawak.
“I was in Sabah recently. I enquired about its tax share and was told that its part of the shares had been paid. There is no intention to defame or politicise anyone here. I am merely doing my duty as the Tourism Minister of Sarawak,”he added.
“Am I politicising or uttering lies in my process of asking what is due and owing to the state over a subject matter that has been promised and pledged by the previous Tourism Minister and the present Finance Minister?”
Karim said it had been agreed and announced in Parliament that 50 per cent of the tourism tax collected by any state would be channelled back to the respective states for the purpose of tourism development and activities.
“Even the exact amount of the tax collected from Sarawak is known. So what’s delaying the remittance?” he asked.
Karim said a total of RM4,653,302 in tourism tax was collected from Sarawak for the Sept 2017-Sept 2018 period, as furnished by Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia (MOTAC).
“Half of that as promised and pledged should be remitted back to Sarawak,” he added in responding to the Finance Minister’s response
Karim pointed out that Sarawak loan or debt owing to the federal government had its own terms and conditions of repayment.
“It’s not for me to go into that subject matter as I know that’s for the Sarawak state government to address and I know the state government knows its obligation in paying its loan or debt,” he added.
In line with this, Karim expressed hope that Guan Eng did not play politics and just did his utmost to improve on Malaysia’s economy including that of Sarawak.
“Denying us of our portion of the tourism tax is not helping Sarawak’s tourism industry and the Malaysian economy in general,” he added.
Guan Eng had earlier slammed Karim over his statement asking the federal government to settle the tourism tax due to Sarawak.
“It is reasonable for the Sarawak state government not to make any accusations on the distribution of RM2.7mil in tourism tax because as of Nov 30, 2018, Sarawak still owes the federal government a debt of almost RM50mil?” Lim said.
The Finance Minister said the federal government had yet to distribute the tourism tax revenue to any states including Sabah.
