Reshuffle needed to bring Armizan back into MA63 committee, says Fadillah

KOTA KINABALU: A minor reshuffle is needed to bring former minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali, back into the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) committee, says Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

“We will discuss this in our MA63 committee. You have to wait because there’s some reshuffling,” he said when asked if the Malaysia Agreement 1963 Implementation Action Council (MTPMA63) had discussed the formula for the 40% tax revenue owed by Putrajaya to Sabah.

“For example, Armizan is no longer in charge of Sabah and Sarawak, so we have to reorganise the structure, and then only we have a meeting and put up a new paper,” he said.

Fadillah added that he had paid a courtesy call to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor on Friday (Jan 19) to seek the latter’s input on the issues regarding the MA63.

“That’s why we sat down and got his direction (Hajiji).

“What I am going to do as far as the MA63 is concerned is to get Armizan and (Penampang MP) Datuk Ewon Benedick to sit in the committee.

“And from then on, we will start our discussion,” he said.

Benedick, who is a member of MTPMA63 and the MTPMA63 technical committee, had last December said he would submit a proposed framework to the Federal and Sabah governments for the payment mechanism of the 40% tax revenue owed by Putrajaya to the state this year.

The president of Upko, a Pakatan Harapan component, said the proposed framework will consider technical issues related to the availability of data related to the collection of federal revenue in Sabah since 1974.

The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister added that the framework will offer a more practical step to realise the payment.