Sabah’s second finance minister, Masidi Manjun said negotiations on the matter had not stopped and the state government will consider every legal avenue that was available.

“The constitution itself provides for an independent assessor and that is one of the options that we can look into if the negotiations fail after some reasonable time,” he said, Borneo Post reported.

Masidi said Sabah had only agreed to take the “interim” RM125 million annually from Putrajaya, adding that this amount will change after an agreement was reached on the 40% formula for revenue-sharing.

“Both parties have agreed to disagree on the interpretation of the 40% and we will continue to negotiate on it. But what we are saying and what we have agreed on, meanwhile, is don’t leave us with zero.”

Sabah leaders have pressed the federal government to abide by a constitutional provision on revenue sharing, but the federal government said the provision had been superseded by the state government having agreed to accept a fixed yearly federal grant.

In mid-April, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that the annual payment to Sabah will be increased to RM125.6 million this year, more than quadruple the RM26.7 million paid to the state previously.

This amount will increase every year for the 2023 to 2026 period.