KUCHING: Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has urged Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng not to play politics but do his utmost to improve the country’s economy, which includes Sarawak.
According to Abdul Karim, denying Sarawak its portion of tourism tax is not helping Sarawak tourism industry and Malaysian economy.
“Why must Minister Guan Eng get emotional and blowing his top and ask Sarawak to pay back its outstanding loan to the federal government when it is totally unrelated to the subject matter in question? Be a gentleman and address the issue professionally.
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“Sarawak’s loan or debt owing to the federal government has its own terms and conditions of repayment and it is not for me to dwell into that subject matter as I know, that is for the Sarawak state government to address and I know the state government knows its obligation in paying its loan or debt,” he said in a press statement today.
Abdul Karim was responding to Lim’s statement today that the Sarawak government should not make allegation about the RM2.7 million tourism tax distribution considering that as of Nov 30, 2018, the state government still owed more than RM2.5 billion to the federal government, with arrears of nearly RM50 million.
Abdul Karim said he was surprised by Lim’s statement with regards to my answer to a question by a member from the media over the non-payment of the tourism tax collected that is due to Sarawak since Sept 2017.
“What I did was just to inform and request for the tax due and owing to Sarawak be paid. I was in Sabah recently and did enquire whether Sabah has been paid the same and the answer given to me was it was paid.
“There was no intention to defame, politicise or ‘fitnah’ anybody here but as the Minister looking after Sarawak tourism, I was just asking what was promised and due, whether from the previous government or the present government of the day.
“Both had agreed and announced in Parliament that 50 per cent of the tourism tax collected by any state would be channeled back to the respective states for the purpose of tourism development and activities. Am I politicising, or uttering ‘fitnah’ 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 Minister of Tourism and the present Minister of Finance?”
Abdul Karim said: “Even the exact amount of tourism tax collected from Sarawak is known. So, what is delaying the remittance? For the record, the amount of RM4,653,302 of tourism tax was collected from Sarawak for the period between Sept 2017 and Sept 2018 as furnished by Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) and half of that as promised and pledged should be remitted back to Sarawak.” -TheBorneoPost
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