KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 ― Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak accused the Pakatan Harapan government of ignoring valuable assets he claimed still belonged to 1MDB when tabling Budget 2019.

Najib, who is a former finance minister and the man behind 1MDB, claimed this was intentionally done so the ruling coalition could keep attacking him and his Barisan Nasional over the topic.

Among others, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng urged an unnamed "robber” to return public funds stolen from the country this evening.

"It is clear they (Pakatan Harapan) are looking to just pin the blame on the Barisan Nasional government and 1MDB.

"They never mentioned anything about 1MDB’s many assets, all of which can be monetised and sold at a good price; the debts of 1MDB can be settled,” Najib said in a press conference after the record RM310 billion Budget was tabled.

In his speech, Lim alluded to the 1MDB corruption scandal and accused his predecessor of manipulating previous economic data, before announcing that this year’s fiscal deficit will be 3.7 per cent instead of the 2.8 per cent targeted by the previous administration.

Najib rejected the allegations and repeated his assertion that the PH government caused its own revenue shortfall by hastily zero-rating the Goods and Services Tax before repealing this in favour of the Sales and Services Tax.

"The root of the problem is them abolishing the GST causing them to lose RM44 billion annually, and the tax holiday for three months costing them RM55 billion.

"This year’s SST (Sales and Services Tax) they can only collect RM5 billion, leaving a RM50 billion deficit, and this is the real issue haunting the finance minister,” Najib claimed.

He insisted that the policy change was the root cause of the present government’s financial health, further claiming that it would be able to afford several cancelled projects if it simply retained his consumption tax.

Among others, the new government has cancelled or deferred projects from Najib’s time such as the MRT3, the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail, and the East Coast Rail Link, among others.