A Sarawak party has taken aim at Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng for claiming that the state owes Putrajaya over RM2.5 billion, with RM50 million currently in arrears.

According to The Malay Mail, State Reform Party president Lina Soo said that Lim should have followed protocol when asking Sarawak to pay back its debt to the federal government, instead of issuing a media statement.

Soo, who described Lim's remarks as "overkill," said the protocol would have been for him to approach the Sarawak finance minister to settle the debt.

"This is overkill, as the Sarawak tourism, arts, culture, youth and sports minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah was merely asking for Sarawak’s share of the tourism tax revenue, as was promised by the federal government," she said.

Lim had issued his statement yesterday in response to Karim, who claimed that Putrajaya owed Sarawak RM2.32 million for its share of the tourism tax collected between January and September last year.

Karim also said that Sarawak is owed a further RM439,731 for the period between September and December 2017.

"It would be wise for the Sarawak government to not make slanderous statements concerning the RM2.7 million in tourism tax disbursement considering, as at Nov 30, 2018, the state government still owes the federal government over RM2.5 billion, with arrears close to RM50 million," the finance minister's statement read.

Saying that his remarks showed the arrogance of federal ministers, Soo pointed out that a large portion of oil and gas revenue from East Malaysia was used to fund mega infrastructure projects in Peninsular Malaysia.

She also reminded Lim of Pakatan Harapan's election pledge of 20 percent oil royalty and 50 percent tax proceeds to be returned to Sarawak.

"The people of Sarawak have been duped by false promises," she said, adding that Lim should apologise to Sarawakians for Harapan apparently breaking its promises after being voted into power.