'Gov’t saved a lot by resolving ECRL, Felda, Tabung Haji, Bandar Malaysia'

The Pakatan Harapan government has made huge savings for the country by resolving four issues being the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project, Felda, Lembaga Tabung Haji and Bandar Malaysia, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We have tackled four major problems which resulted from the last administration.

“We have saved the government a lot of money through all this solving of problems of ECRL, Felda, Tabung Haji and now Bandar Malaysia,” Mahathir said at a press conference today.

He was responding to the international rating agency, Moody’s, which had criticised the government’s RM6.23 billion financial assistance to Felda.

The rating agency claimed the Malaysian government’s debt was already significantly above the median of A-rated sovereigns and this bailout package would only add to its burdens.

“The rating agency says giving RM6 billion to rescue (Felda) is wrong and they may downgrade Malaysia but when Malaysia owed RM1 trillion there was no talk of downgrading. This is strange.

“Well, I suppose rating agencies have got their own criteria but what is a fact is that the previous government owed a huge amount of money which will cause a deficit for years and years in the budget but they retained their ratings.

“Now when we are trying to solve these problems, we are told it is the wrong move,” Mahathir said.

He said the government has plans to amalgamate all the holdings of Felda settlers into mega-estates run by professional planters to solve the oil palm problem.

There is also a new agriculture policy to have mixed crops in order to maximise profits, he added.

Earlier, Mahathir brought up the renegotiated ECRL deal which saw a reduced cost of RM21 billion among other key points.

On Tabung Haji, Mahathir said it had not been properly managed in the past as it was supposed to use the money deposited by Muslims to subsidise their pilgrimages and pay out dividends.

He said this (the mismanagement) should not be the way and the Harapan government would ensure it was better managed now.

“The government is going to help Tabung Haji so there is a return of investments so that those putting money (in Tabung Haji) will get returns and dividends will come from the investments,” he said.

Mahathir had also announced that the Bandar Malaysia project, which was terminated in May 2017, would be reinstated with some alterations.  - Mkini