Exploring opportunities for new revenue: Masidi
Published on: Saturday, December 02, 2023
By: Larry Ralon
Masidi said, due to overall State financial constraints, the State Government is unable to balance or contribute more to the Development Fund than the Consolidated Revenue Account.
Kota Kinabalu: The State Government will continue to explore every opportunity that has the potential to be used as a new revenue to reduce dependence on State Sales Tax, Crude Oil (CO) and Crude Palm Oil (CPO) commodities, said Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.
“All ministries and revenue-collecting departments are called upon to respond to this challenge by multiplying efforts to ensure that this objective is achieved,” he said when wrapping up for his Ministry at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting.
ADVERTISEMENT
On Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob (Sindumin) who touched on the imbalance in the allocation of the Supply Expenditure which is much higher than the Development Expenditure, Masidi said several governments had previously examined and tried to implement Development Biased Budget.
However, he said, due to overall State financial constraints, the State Government is unable to balance or contribute more to the Development Fund than the Consolidated Revenue Account.
He added that the matter was inherited from past leaderships.
“As I have presented in the 2024 Budget, as much as RM808.06 million is for Emolument Expenditure, RM2.203 billion is Recurring Expenditure and Special Expenditure is as much as RM1.74 billion.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Under the Special Expenditure, there is a development component that can be transferred to the Development Vote which is approximately RM1.0 billion, then the Supply Expenditure will be reduced to RM3.751 billion after deducting the Contribution to the Development Fund of RM950 million and RM1.0 billion from the Special Expenditure. This move will increase the total development account expenditure to RM2.328 billion compared to the original estimate of only RM1.328 billion.
“If the two are mixed, this will make the total amount of Supply and Development Expenditure to as much as RM6.079 billion. Therefore, the allocation for Development Expenditure will increase to 38.3 per cent compared to the original estimate of 21.84 per cent when compared to the RM1.328 billion allocated for Development Expenditure next year. If the financial capacity of the State allows, we will be able to balance or table a “Development-Biased Budget”.
ADVERTISEMENT
“For information, the State Government is planning and drafting to realign allocations under the Supply and Development Vote during the preparation of the 13th Malaysia Plan in the future where the concentration of allocation distribution will be balanced between Supply and Development Expenditure in phases and depending on the financial capacity of the State.”
On the issue raised by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (Senallang), Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (Lamag) and Datuk Suhaimi Haji Nasir (Nominated Assemblyman), Masidi said, the State Government admitted that the percentage of expenditure for Development Expenditure allocated by the Federal Government was still low in October 2023.
As of October 31, 2023, the allocation that has been spent is as much as RM3.513 billion, equivalent to 66.77 per cent compared to the revised allocation.
“Actually, out of the revised expenditure of RM5.262 billion, only RM1.501 billion of projects implemented by departments or agencies under the State Government have achieved an expenditure performance of 66.09 per cent, which is equivalent to RM992 million as of October 31, 2023.
“In total, the projects that have been registered in myprojek involve a total of 1,217 projects which are 996 extension projects and 221 new projects.
“For information, expenditure on extension projects has reached RM3.338 billion or 63.66 per cent as of 31 October 2023. The State Government is confident that the performance of this expenditure will increase further by December 2023.
“While for projects that have a new status or are still in pre-implementation, these projects do not require a lot of allocation because they only involve preliminary works and take approximately six to 12 months for the preparation and implementation of the project. In this phase, the allocation requirement of the State Government is much lower than the allocation channelled by the Federal Government. The allocated RM1.259 billion can only be spent as much as RM175.24 million or 13.92 per cent,” he explained.
Regarding the issue raised by Suhaimi, who is also Libaran MP and Kota Belud MP Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis in the Parliament about the delay in the Sabah Finance Ministry (MOF) sending applications and responses regarding the issuance of Federal Loans, Masidi explained that their statements were inaccurate.
He requested that all State Assemblymen and Members of Parliament who represent Sabah obtain complete and authentic information before issuing any statements that may affect the image of Sabah.
“It is acknowledged that there were mistakes or oversights by the applicant departments, namely the Sabah Water Department (JANS) and the Sabah Sewerage Services Department (JPPS) in the loan disbursement application last year.
“However, this process has been improved at the department level to prevent it from happening again. I also need to clarify that MOF is only an intermediary for the two departments concerned.
“The State Government has sent the application to the Federal Government in October 2022. However, the Federal Government has restricted the allocation as early as August 2022.
“To prevent the same problem from recurring, the Sabah Finance Ministry has organised a workshop at the beginning of this year aimed at improving any deficiencies or weaknesses in the processing of Federal Loan applications.
“As a result of the workshop, there was an improvement in terms of efficiency by Jans and JPPS in submitting applications for the issuance of Federal Loans. This initiative is implemented to ensure that all Federal Government conditions are met in every loan disbursement application submitted by the State Government.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
.jpg)
.jpg)
