‘WE ARE SHORT OF MONEY, WE SPENT A LOT TO SERVICE NAJIB’S LOANS’: MAHATHIR MULLS TABLING SUPPLEMENTARY BUDGET

SERDANG – The government is looking at tabling the supplementary budget next week, said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We will look at that,” said Dr Mahathir when asked by reporters if the government would be tabling the supplementary budget next week after visiting an art exhibition ‘Tun M: A Forever Legacy’ at the Perdana University here today.

On the dispute between the previous government and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng on the allegedly missing RM18 billion in funds for the goods and services tax (GST) refund, Dr Mahathir said : “So if it (the RM18 billion) is not missing show us where the money is.”

Asked if the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had used the money to pay any of the expenditure since it came into power on May 10, the prime minister said: “Well we are short of money. That is the fact.”

Dr Mahathir said PH was short of money because a lot of the money went to servicing loans and trying to retire the loans.

“That is where the money has gone to,” Dr Mahathir said.

The prime minister said the people (the rakyat) also expected the PH government to give free money to them because this was a habit developed by former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.

“He (Najib) gives money to people freely and now the people expect us to give money to them freely. But we don’t have the money,” he said. — Bernama

Dr M: Pakatan govt spent ‘a lot’ to service Najib administration’s loans

SERDANG— The Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government has used “a lot” of public money to repay loans taken by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

However, he did not disclose the amount or if his administration had touched the RM18 billion from a trust account set up to refund the goods and services (GST) claims from businesses that has become a point of contention with the previous government led by Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“A lot money had gone to servicing loans and retiring loans… and people expect free money from us.

“This is a habit developed by Najib that is to give money to the people freely,” Dr Mahathir told reporters when asked if the PH government had used money from the GST refund account to pay for some of its expenditure.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng on August 8 said that RM18 billion in input tax credit under the GST system since 2015 had gone “missing” from the trust account.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had subsequently rejected Lim’s assertion, saying that the funds could have been used for other approved development projects instead.

Zahid added that if the funds were diverted and approved in the budget, the incumbent government could just table a supplementary supply Bill to bridge the funds, and not “accuse” the previous administration.

Najib, who was the previous finance minister, responded by accusing his successor of making baseless, politically-driven statement on the RM18 billion.

The police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission are currently investigating the matter. – Malay Mail

BERNAMA / MALAY MAIL