Previous Warisan govt had agreed to Sabah special grant rates, says Anwar

PETALING JAYA: The Sabah government under the then Warisan administration had agreed to the revised special grant rates for the state as announced in the 2020 federal budget, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said.

He said the rates were tabled by the finance minister at the time in the 2020 budget, amounting to RM53.4 million for 2020 and 2021, RM80.1 million for 2022 and 2023, and RM106.8 million for 2024.

In a written parliamentary reply, Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said the proposed rates were approved by the Sabah Cabinet on Oct 16, 2019.

“The federal government received a letter from the permanent secretary at Sabah’s finance ministry dated Oct 18, 2019, conveying the state government’s decision at the time to agree to the special grant rates for the period from 2020 to 2024,” he said.

However, he said the proposed rates were never finalised as they were not gazetted.

“The new federal government formed on March 1, 2020, subsequently decided to review the special grant rates proposed in the 2020 budget,” he said.

He said the special grant for Sabah stood at RM26.7 million until 2021. It was increased to RM125.6 million for 2022 following a joint review by the federal government and the state government, which was subsequently gazetted.

He was responding to a written parliamentary question by Riduan Rubin (Ind-Tenom) about whether the Sabah government had been consulted, and had given written consent, to the increase in the special grant rate announced in the 2020 budget.

In 2025, the federal government doubled the special grants to Sabah and Sarawak to RM600 million each, two years after the grant was raised to RM300 million. Sabah received an increase of RM40 million while Sarawak was given a greater increase, having previously received only RM16 million.

In May, Anwar said the RM600 million allocation to Sabah will be increased to RM1.5 billion pending the finalisation of the state’s constitutional claim to a 40% revenue entitlement.