“Why must Guan Eng get emotional and blow his top and ask Sarawak to pay back its outstanding loan to the federal government when it is totally unrelated to the subject matter in question?” said state Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

“Be a gentleman and address the issue professionally,” he told FMT.

He said Sarawak should not be denied the revenue from the tax.

He said the state collected RM4.6 million in tourism tax from September 2017 to September 2018, half of which was promised to be returned to Sarawak so that it could carry out tourism development programmes.

He added that the loan from the federal government has its repayment terms and conditions.

Karim also questioned Lim’s refusal to pay Sarawak when Putrajaya had already paid Sabah.

Lim had said the accounts for last year’s tourism tax collection would be finalised soon, with 50% share from it to be distributed to the state governments in the first quarter of this year.

But Lim hit out at Karim for criticising the federal government for not paying back its share of the tourism tax revenue.

Karim urged Lim not to “play politics”.

“Just do your utmost best to improve the Malaysian economy and that includes Sarawak too.

“Denying us of our portion of tourism tax is not helping the Sarawak tourism industry and the Malaysian economy”.