KOTA KINABALU: Inland Revenue Board (IRB), Sabah regretted that Bingkor Assemblyman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan had chosen to use the misquoted figure in respect of the so-called projected tax revenue to be collected from Sabah by the federal government.
Its director Haji Kamaruzzaman Ab Salleh said the figure reported by a local English language newspaper (English and Kadazandusun sections) on May 22 this year was not the correct one.
He said instead of RM4 billion as announced by IRB Sabah as being the collection targetted for 2013, RM40 billion was instead quoted.
Kamaruzzaman said they had immediately issued a press release on May 22 through Bernama, the national news agency, to request for a correction, and again, on June 4.
“For Sabah, the targetted collection this year is RM4 billion. Last year, our targetted collection was RM3.45 billion but the actual collection for the year was higher, that is, RM3.67 billion.”
“However, this is a gross figure as it includes possible refunds and repayments. The RM3.085 million figure referred to by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman cum Minister of Finance in his winding up speech at the State Assembly could be the nett collection for 2012,” he explained.
Meanwhile, when contacted for his comment, the state EPU director, Datuk Ismail Abdullah said it is illogical that Sabah could yield such astronomical tax collection annually.
He said based on the clarification by the IRB Sabah director, and knowing that income or direct taxes are the biggest component – at around 70 %, of the total federal tax collection – the Chief Minister was definitely correct when he said in his winding up speech that the federal government spent far more in Sabah than what it got in terms of tax collection.
He said the Chief Minister’s statement pertaining to this matter was based on facts as supplied by the Accountant General Department’s office in Sabah and that there was no issue.
“Either Dr Jeffery is very selective in his use of figure, or he is not thorough in his reading and research at all,” Ismail said.
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