Sabah govt should claim the return of 40% of all GST collected from Sabah - Dr. Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU - “There is now more excuse for the Sabah government not to claim for return of 40% of the RM1.2 billion GST expected to be collected from Sabah by the federal Customs department now that a neutral legal opinion has been given,” said Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan, STAR Sabah Chief in reference to the announcement by the Customs in Sabah that RM1.2 billion was targeted to be collected under the GST for the 9 months of 2015 from 01 April 2015.

“The Sabah government may not have taken me seriously last year when I highlighted that Sabah is entitled to 40% of the net revenue collected from Sabah,” lamented Dr. Jeffrey.

“The GST or sales tax is a State right under Article 95B(3) of the Federal Constitution which provides that sales tax, which includes the GST, is deemed to be a matter under the State List under the Ninth Schedule and not under the Federal List. In addition, under the Tenth Schedule, Sabah was entitled to 40% of the net revenue collected” added Dr. Jeffrey.

The Sabah government has committed a series of mis-steps and wrongs with regards to the imposition of GST in Sabah.

Firstly, the Sabah government was wrong in supporting the implementation of GST in Sabah without considering that sales tax including GST was a State right with Sabah having its own Sales Tax Enactment 1998.

It was wrong in supporting the imposition of GST without considering the rights of Sabah and the welfare of Sabahans. It then failed to seek an exemption of GST from being imposed on Sabahans by the federal government.

Now that GST will be imposed in about 3 weeks’ time, the Sabah government will be putting the final nail against Sabahans if it fails to claim for the 40% of the GST collected from Sabahans under the Tenth Schedule as advised by the lawyer from Kuala Lumpur at the public Forum organized by the Foreign Ministry and UMS at UMS over the weekend.

The Chief Minister has been bragging of the close relations between the State and the Prime Minister and the federal government.   The Speaker of the State Assembly and the Deputy Chief Minister has recently sought to negotiate for partial autonomy for Sabah from the federal government.

As for the 40% entitlement of the GST, they do not need to negotiate for its return to the Sabah government.   As advised by the lawyer from Kuala Lumpur, who is also head of the Bar Council’s Constitution Committee, this 40% entitlement is a Sabah right provided expressly in the Federal Constitution and all the Sabah government need to do is to ask for it to be implemented.

The return of the 40% entitlement will certainly help the Sabah government and help contribute to expedite overall development of Sabah and be used for programs for the benefit of Sabahans.

Will the Sabah government and the Sabah Umno BN leaders be brave enough to claim for this 40% entitlement?