Guan Eng questions Putrajaya's ability to replenish Kwan

 

Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng has questioned the government's ability to replenish the National Trust Fund (Kwan) after tapping RM5 billion to cover the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

This came after Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the government is committed to replenishing the fund when the Covid-19 pandemic ends and its finances have recovered.

"The finance minister's assurance is meaningless when it is unlikely to have the capacity and capability to do so in the foreseeable future," Lim said in a statement today. 

This is particularly so as the government cannot borrow to replenish funds in Kwan since the government borrowings are only to finance development projects, he added. 

"This means that such replenishment has to be from government revenue collected."

However, Lim said the government, which recorded a decline in revenue for two consecutive year - from RM264.4 billion in 2019 to RM227.3 billion in 2020 and RM237 billion in 2021 - could hardly replenish Kwan this year.

"(Furthermore) the RM5 billion appropriated from Kwan has not met its intended objective of expediting the vaccination process with a slow and low vaccination rate. 

"Malaysia is the worst Asia Pacific country in Covid-19 infections per capita and our daily infection cases are now higher than Indonesia. 

"Warnings of a failed Covid-19 crisis management are not helped by the low vaccination rate of 2.3 percent for two doses, which is even lower than the vaccination rate of Indonesia for two doses at 4.2 percent of its huge population," he said.

The Bagan MP added that the ministry acted too late to provide funding from borrowings to purchase Covid-19 vaccines early, resulting in the failure to expedite the vaccination process which it had intended to do through the tapping of Kwan funds. 

With Parliament suspended, he said the public couldn't get an answer on how RM60 billion in allocation was spent to battle Covid-19, money which came from five stimulus plans totalling RM55 billion and RM5 billion from Kwan.

Kwan is a savings fund collected from the harvesting of the country’s natural resources.

Earlier today, Zafrul urged the people to place their trust in the government in managing the funds from Kwan. 

"Be confident that the government always strives to do the best for the people. Kwan is regulated by five members of the board of trustees who make all policy decisions before submitting them to the government.

"The board of trustees includes government and private/professional representatives. Kwan is also audited annually by the National Audit Department.

"Therefore, the check and balance element remains secure despite specific and limited amendments to the use of Kwan," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

The minister said many countries were also tapping into their reserves to address the Covid-19 crisis.

"In fact, our neighbouring country, Singapore, also uses internal reserves worth almost US$40 billion (RM164 billion). In comparison, our use of Kwan is only about US$1.2 billion," he added. - Mkini