26 Apr 2024, 12:45 Kuching
26 Apr 2024, 05:45 London
After the horse has bolted! Or in the case of the Sarawak Chief Minister after the forest has been felled!
In a cheap, publicity grabbing, move he announced an increase in the timber levy from 80 cents to RM50. Now that virtually all of the State’s irreplaceable tropical forest has been cut down by cronies of former State CM Taib Mahmud the new rate will produce virtually no revenue and so the quoted timber tycoons are happy to pay it.
Even if the charges are in fact raised on future deals Sarawakians can have no confidence that the increased levy will be properly applied. The difference in rates can grease a great many pockets.
It is notable that the CM did not offer any explanation why it has taken decades to review this tax and raise it, nor make any effort to impose additional charges on past transactions; something he could easily have done if allowed to by master crook Taib.
Opposition parties in Sarawak should not neglect to publicise this cover up of past crime by the State representative of criminal organisation BN and mega criminal Najib Razak
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