KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 2 — Penang’s annual fiscal surplus is not due to land sale by the state government, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.
Lim explained that the proceeds from the sale of state land was channelled to the state’s Public and Affordable Housing Fund.
In a statement, he said that the state’s accumulated surplus since 2008 would have been RM 1.074 billion had the Public and Affordable Housing Fund did not receive the funds.
“This RM500 million Public & Affordable Housing Fund was taken out of the RM658 million in land sales by the state government, clearly showing that land sales was not the reason for the annual surpluses of the state government, which amounted to RM574 million since 2008,” he said.
Lim also said that land sale only contributed to 13 per cent of Penang’s total revenue since 2008.
“In other words, since 2008 only RM158 million was available as contribution towards accumulated surplus of RM574 million, and towards establishing a welfare state where over RM400 million has been paid out as cash payments to 1.6 million Penangites and schools,” he added.
Lim also said that the DAP-run state government had sold less land compared to the previous Barisan Nasional administration, and also obtained better value for it.
“The previous government had also conducted land sales on a much larger scale selling 3,661 acres compared to only 106.1 acres under the present state government,” he said.
“And yet the present state government brought in a higher sum of RM1.1102 billion from the sale of 106.1 acres of land due to our open competitive tender system,” he added.
Lim also said that the state government is proud of its “sterling” performance in recording annual surpluses, which he said had helped the state reduce its debts by 90 per cent since 2008.
