Datuk John Lau
KUCHING (Nov 1): Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Kota Sentosa has expressed disappointment over the RM4.6 billion allocation for Sarawak’s development in Budget 2022 tabled last Friday.
PSB Kota Sentosa representative Datuk John Lau said Sarawak should be given more allocation as the state contributed 30 per cent of the nation’s annual revenue in past years through taxes paid to the federal government.
“Sarawak should be allocated with at least one-third of the total development budget of RM75.6 billion.
“We are disappointed and perturbed to learn that Sarawak is only allocated RM4.6 billion development funds in 2022,” he said in a statement yesterday.
According to him, many people in Kota Sentosa have been asking why is Sarawak allocated with so little money for development considering that the state’s suburban and rural infrastructure are very far behind compared to Peninsular Malaysia?
Lau said although the RM4.6-billion allocation is more than the RM4.5-billion development allocation for last year, but in real value, it may be much less than the latter allocation due to inflation and rising cost of living.
“During the Prime Minister’s visit to Sarawak recently, he has made known that Budget 2022 has some surprises for Sarawak. The surprise is that we are allocated with only 6.08 per cent of the total RM65.6 billion development budget.
“The RM4.6 billion is only 1.4 per cent of the nation’s annual budget of RM332.1 billion. The Prime Minister’s Keluarga Malaysia concept promoted inclusivity, command ground and contentment, but when we see the 2022 development funds allocation, the concept is lacking.
“The development expenditure amounts to 23.5 per cent of the Annual Budget of RM332.1 billion, but operation expenditure is 233.4 billion, which is 67.3 per cent of the annual expenditures.
“We would like the authorities to enlighten us as to why operation expenditure is 3.1 times higher than development expenditure. In a developing country like Malaysia, we need to have more development funds, particularly Sarawak and Sabah who are equal partners in the formation of Malaysia in 1963,” he said
Noting that Malaysia’s annual expenditures were always more than the revenue collected between 2010 and 2020, Lau said that the annual expenses for this year is expected to be RM322.54 billion where revenue would only be RM236.90 billion.
He added that for next year, Malaysia is expected to generate a revenue of RM234 billion and the annual expenditure is expected to be RM332.10 billion.
Meanwhile, Lau said the RM1.5 billion for rural infrastructure development for Sabah and Sarawak would definitely be insufficient to bring the two Malaysia’s partners to be on par with Peninsular Malaysia.
“It was stated that RM200 million would be allocated to help the Chinese Community. It did not mention what type of assistance. Is it to help the Chinese Middle Schools or otherwise? We hope the authorities would enlighten us more with transparency and accountability.
“RM11.4 billion would be allocated to empower Bumiputera. This is a piece of good news; we hope that the Bumiputera living in Sarawak can have an equal share of the RM11.4 billion,” he said
He expressed his hope that the Ministry of Finance could allocate more development funds to Sarawak in 2022 within the spirit of Keluarga Malaysia.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3msPHGe
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