In a statement, he referred to Sarawak Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah’s remark that Putrajaya had paid the Sabah government its share of the tourism tax.

He said Karim was being “stubborn” in repeating the claim that the Sarawak government was being discriminated against.

“Clearly, the Sarawak state government is so eager to fight the federal government that it is willing to make claims with baseless facts and figures.

“It is quite easy for the Sarawak state government to confirm if a share of the tourism tax has been paid out by writing to the finance ministry,” he said.

Unfortunately, he added, Sarawak had not done this but instead resorted to “slanderous attacks”.

Lim repeated three facts on the matter, including that the 50% tourism tax revenue had not been channelled to the respective state governments, which would only be done after the tax revenue is finalised.

He added that the tax revenue will be channelled to the state governments in the first quarter of the year.

“Secondly, according to the Federal Constitution, this tax is paid to the federal government, and state governments have no right to these taxes. However, out of the respect the federal government has for the states, 50% of the tax revenue will be given to them as stated in the tabling of Budget 2019 on Nov 2, 2018.”

Thirdly, he said, Putrajaya would give the states their share of the tax revenue whether or not they had outstanding debts to the federal government.

“This means Sarawak will still receive tourism tax revenue even though it still owes RM2.5 billion with arrears of RM50 million to the federal government.”

He said if the Sarawak government wanted to prolong the matter with false claims, it would raise suspicions regarding its sincerity in wanting to work with Putrajaya.

“Instead, their actions will be seen as politically motivated to plant hate towards the federal government.”

Yesterday, Karim had hit out at Lim after the finance minister told the state to repay its RM2.5 billion debt before asking for a share of the revenue from the tourism tax.

“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?” he told FMT.

“Be a gentleman and address the issue professionally.”