KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — The Federal government recorded a revenue of RM220.40 billion in 2017, a 3.8 per cent (RM7.985 billion) increase compared with 2016.
Meanwhile, operating and development expenditure totalled RM262.58 billion, an increase of RM10.41 billion from 2016.
“The Federal government had a RM40.32 billion deficit, with a deficit-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of three per cent,” said the Auditor-General’s (A-G) 2017 report on the Federal government’s financial statement and the financial management of ministries/departments/statutory bodies.
According to the report, the Federal government also incurred foreign and domestic loans of RM129.24 billion to finance development expenditure and loan repayments.
The Federal debt stood at RM686.83 billion — a debt-GDP ratio of 50.8 per cent.
“The direct repayment of loans from the consolidated loans account is outside of the government’s budget mechanism.
“This means that the repayment of the principal debt was not allocated for under the Federal government’s annual budget which was tabled in Parliament and was not accounted for in the annual operating expenses for the current year,” it said.
As the repayment of loans was not budgeted earlier in the allocation for operations, the A-G suggested for the new estimated amount of loans for the repayment of the principal debt to be tabled in Parliament during the presentation of the budget for operations and development.
Additionally, the A-G said the Federal government should ensure that its financial statements were complete and up-to-date by undertaking periodical reviews at all levels. — Bernama
