KOTA KINABALU: Sabah will continue to fight for the return of the 40 per cent net revenue owed by federal government to the state.
Parti Solidarity Tanah Airku (Sabah Star) youth treasurer exco Neilson Martin Indang said the 40 per cent was separate from the annual special grant which the state government had successfully obtain a 4.7-fold increase from the federal government.
"The Sabah government has always been fighting for the 40 per cent revenue. Since 1963, we've been receiving only RM26 million from the federal government every year.
"But under the GRS (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah) government, we've managed to get almost five-fold increase to RM125.6 million every year now.
"This has never been achieved before and it was a mighty effort on our part to get this for our state and our people," he said in a statement.
Neilson stressed, however, the increase did not mean that the Sabah government would not relinquish its claim for the 40 per cent revenue as stipulated under Article 112C and Part V of the 10th Schedule in the Constitution.
"It's quite a significant increase from RM26.7 million to RM125.6 million. But I can assure everyone that we will not stop fighting for our rights."
The federal government, in April, had reached an agreement with the GRS state government on the contentious issue of the annual special grant amount owed to Sabah.
The amount will be increased every year from 2023 to 2026.
In a joint statement then between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, they announced that negotiations for the claims of 40 per cent of the total income from Sabah would continue.
The Barisan Nasional maintained the amount of payment of RM26.7 million from 1974 to 2018 and was continued by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government until 2019; RM53.4 million was then paid in 2020.
However, the GRS Sabah government did not agree with the amount and it was revised to RM125.6 million for 2022.