Guan Eng: Anwar can ignore me, but not voices of Sabah voters

Malaysiakini : DAP national adviser Lim Guan Eng has warned Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim that ignoring the voices of Sabah voters would jeopardise Pakatan Harapan and affect the coalition’s support.

“The prime minister can choose not to listen to me. However, he cannot afford to refuse to listen to the voices of Sabah voters,” Lim said, noting that the Sabah election results have shown that voters are upset about extra taxes.

The former finance minister’s caution was included in a Facebook post in which he denied that he highlighted the people’s hardship only after, and not before, the Sabah election on Nov 29.

“Since December 2024, I have made a total of at least seven speeches in Parliament objecting to the expansion of the scope of the SST (sales and services tax) and other measures that burden the people.

“Even the media in Parliament can remember and confirm that I have made those speeches repeatedly asking for review and delay of these SST, tax and other measures. “The seven speeches in Parliament were on Dec 4, 2024, Feb 5, 2025, March 3, 2025, March 6, 2025, May 5, 2025, Aug 6, 2025 and Oct 16, 2025,” he added.

Dewan Rakyat in Parliament building

Lim said he also raised issues like e-invoicing and the delay in tax refunds. However, he said his pleas were not heeded by the government or by Anwar. “Instead, the prime minister proceeded with implementing these measures in the second half of 2025,” he said, urging the prime minister to reconsider his position on these issues.

Income tax refund delays

In a separate statement, Lim highlighted an example of how ordinary people suffer due to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB)’s slow processing of income tax refunds. He raised the case of one Cheong Wei Foong, who runs four music academies and has been waiting since 2020 for RM112,000 in tax refunds. Lim said Cheong had only received RM4,147 this year.

“He (Cheong) was deeply disappointed as the amount (returned this year) was negligible compared with the total outstanding sum.

Inland Revenue Board office

“Upon further checks, he was informed that this was all that could be processed for the time being, while the remaining balance would still have to wait, with no indication of when it might be returned.

“According to him, refund claims for the years 2016 to 2020 had posed no issues. However, after that, he assumed the delays were due to the movement control order (MCO) during the pandemic.

“In 2023, he went to the IRB office in Shah Alam to check the status and submitted a fresh refund application. Yet, to this day, there has been no progress,” Lim added.

The Bagan MP said the delay had strained the company’s cash flow and was emblematic of a wider problem for SMEs, arguing that excess tax collected is rightfully the taxpayer’s money and should not be withheld for years.

He urged the IRB to expedite all outstanding refunds.

“IRB collects over RM300 billion in tax revenue each year, so processing refunds involving such relatively small amounts should not be a problem. “In reality, if a company were to take legal action to recover its money, it would almost certainly win, as the IRB has no right to retain funds belonging to taxpayers.

The real question, however, is this - who would dare to sue the IRB?” Lim asked.