MELAKA: Melaka would not need to reclaim land from the sea to raise revenue if states received 5% of GST collections, says Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli.
Launching Parti Bersama Malaysia’s state election manifesto in Batu Berendam on Monday (Nov 2), the former economy minister said states now had to plead with the Federal Government for allocations.
“Tourists come here and spend money here, but the state government gets nothing. At most, it can raise the hotel room levy.
“That is why it reclaims the sea for land premiums. It’s not fair,” he said during a press conference.
“If 5% of GST goes back to the states, no state can say it is not progressing because it is treated like a stepchild,” he added.
Rafizi said Melaka would eventually run out of land to sell.
“One day, by 2040, where will Melaka get its revenue? There will be no land left. You only get land premiums once,” he said.
GST was abolished in 2018. Bersama’s shadow budget, released last month, proposed bringing it back at 5% to replace the sales and service tax, with 5% of collections going to the states.
Rafizi said Bersama would freeze approvals for all sea reclamation projects.
He said 462,259 people live in Melaka’s coastal areas, and 32 sq km of coastal land could be under water at high tide by 2050.
Bersama also wants Melaka to earn more from four sectors: advanced manufacturing, health tourism, tourism-related retail and services, and the blue economy.
Rafizi said state government spending grew about three times faster than revenue from 2021 to 2024, by an average of 6.72% a year compared with 2.28%.
The state posted surpluses in 2021 and 2022 but ran deficits of RM59mil in 2023 and RM29mil in 2024.
Household water tariffs have gone up by as much as 66% since 2024, he said.
He said Bersama wanted seven more assemblymen, appointed automatically according to each party’s share of the vote in the state election.
Asked how this would work, Rafizi said the state executive council could decide on the method, or it could be done through a state enactment, with the Election Commission announcing which parties get the seats.
Bersama would spend at least 30% of the state’s operating expenditure, or RM86mil, on programmes that reach the people directly, up from 14% in the 2024 state budget, he said.
These include a health card worth RM500 a year for households with a net disposable income below RM4,000 a month.
Independent professionals would be appointed to state tender boards handling tenders above RM10mil.
Bersama is contesting 16 of the 28 seats in the Nov 14 polls.
