THE Sabah State Government has sent a letter dated April 10 to the Federal Government demanding payment of 40% for two undisputed types of tax, the Sabah State Assembly (DUN) was informed on Tuesday.
Deputy Chief Minister II and Minister of Finance of Sabah Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said that the two types of taxes in question are taxes collected by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department and income tax collected by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).
For 2025, Masidi said the combined amount of direct taxes (IRB) and indirect taxes (Customs) collected in Sabah was RM7.547 billion, with 40% of it estimated to be RM3.019 billion.
"Our stance (the Sabah state government) is that undisputed taxes must be paid first, whether now or later, before we negotiate other taxes that are still under negotiation," he said as reported by Bernama.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Alias Sani (Warisan-Sekong), who wanted to know the amount of revenue from Customs and IRB taxes handed over by the Federal Government to the Sabah State Government.
Masidi noted that the collection of data for both tax revenues is published annually for public knowledge; therefore, it should not raise doubts about making the payment in advance.
Earlier, Alias, in his original question, wanted to know the total amount collected by the Federal Government in Sabah from 1974 to 2024.
Assistant Minister of Finance of Sabah, Datuk Chong Chen Bin, when answering Alias' original question, said that the Federal Government had submitted part of the federal revenue data obtained in Sabah from 1974 to 2025.
He said the data was submitted through meetings of the Special Grant Negotiation Committee at the officer level between the Federal Government and the Sabah Government on Jan 28, 2026, as well as meetings of the Special Grant Negotiation Working Committee at the officer level on Feb 27, 2026, and March 13, 2026.
However, Chong said that the data cannot be shared publicly or published and is only for meeting purposes.
"Several components of revenue have been listed, consisting of direct taxes, indirect taxes, non-tax revenue, and petroleum revenue involving royalties and petroleum income tax.
"However, all components of this revenue are still subject to negotiation to be considered as federal revenue obtained in Sabah, in the calculation of the Special Grant," he said. – April 28, 2026
