Gambling serious in Sarawak

State Assembly women for Pending YB Violet Yong in her blog wrote that she had asked the Chief Minister of Sarawak cum Minister of Finance in the State Assembly on how much sales tax had been collected by the State Government from lottery tickets for the respective years of 2000 until 2006.

She mentioned that most of us only know that there is a 10% tax imposed when purchasing lottery tickets but as to how much sales tax had been collected by the Sarawak State government over the years, it remains a "BIG" questionmark.

"We, as Sarawakian cum tax payers, have the right to demand for the answer," he said.

And here is the answer she got from the question she asked:

Year 2000 is RM37,444,173.05
Year 2001 is RM38,425,759.40
Year 2002 is RM39,783,929.25
Year 2003 is RM42,740,097.00
Year 2004 is RM78,154,187.30
Year 2005 is RM94,352,199.80
Year 2006 is RM85,887,379.00 (Unaudited)

Total: RM416,787,724.80

Violet also wanted to know where has all the money gone? The issue has been debated in the local newspaper for the last four days, but until today no answer has been given by the government on where and how the money collected has been spent.

Meanwhile several community leaders expressed their concern and had asked the authority ti reduce the number draws as they believe a large number of people who patronise the lottery outlets are poor people.

They seriously think the government should reduce as much as possible the frequency of the lottery draws.

There were four draws in a week on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and also on Tuesday when the operators ran special draws.

"There are only seven days in a week and our people are gambling on four days. I can only describe our country as a ‘gambling country, said Sibu United Chinese Association (UCA) president Ting Huat Chie.

He said the amount of tax collected was huge considering that the state only had a population of 2.6 million.

Ting also opined that the additional 10% tax imposed was also unfair as it increased the burden of the people.

He too questioned how the state government used the tax collected from the lottery sales, urging there should be transparency on how this money is spent.

Others said gambling should not be encouraged because it will create many social problems, especially when one is addicted to it.

With a population of only 2.6 million, Sarawak’s sales tax collections from lottery sales is stupefying. The state government rakes in more than RM100mil annually.

The 10 sen tax imposed on every RM1 lottery ticket sold contributed RM103.4mil to the state coffers in 2008, RM114mil in 2009, RM115.7mil in 2010 and RM77.9mil up to Sept 30 last year and the figures are increasing.

Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen said, given the state’s small population, the amount collected was “shocking”.

He felt that the authorities should discourage gambling in the state, saying that for a start, the Government should scrap the special draws which are offered once or twice in a month by the operators which could reduce the sales tax by 20%.

Chong, the Sarawak DAP secretary, said that during the last State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting in November, he had asked for the amount of total sales tax collected from lotteries but only received a written reply from Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh on May 9 through a dispatch boy from the August house.

On the 5% royalties collected from oil, Chong cited the Finance Ministry’s record which said the quantum in 2007 amounted to RM999.1mil, RM1,322.6mil (2008), RM894.2mil (2009), RM899.2mil (2010) and RM1,096.5mil last year.

As for the 5% gas royalties, the quantum collected in 2007 was RM561.4mil, RM819.6mil (2008), RM970.7 mil (2009), RM830.8mil (2010) and RM953.48mil last year.

Chong said the issue of increasing the rate of oil and gas royalties for the state from 5% to 20% was frequently raised in the august house but the minister insisted that the matter be put to negotiation at the highest level.

According to Chong, the minister had said any increase in the payment of royalties might adversely affect the Federal Government’s capacity to finance its operating and development budgets.

“It may have a bearing on the state and people, particularly on critical and strategic national subjects like education, health care, security and infrastructure,” said Wong.

Wong also said instead of higher royalties, the state government would seek bigger development allocation from the Federal Government.

Chong said Wong’s written reply was different from a statement he made in a previous sitting a few years ago when he said the state government would ask for higher oil and gas royalties.

“The state government has reduced itself to begging for more funds,” Chong said.

He said he was disappointed that it took Wong half a year to reply to his questions.

Chong said Wong’s reply came when he had submitted similar questions for the present DUN sitting thinking that the minister had refused to answer them.