GOVT MULLS SELLING LAND NEXT
Sale only meant for locals to reduce what the country owes, says PM
AFTER selling off superyacht Equanimity, the government is considering selling more assets, including land, to pare down its national debt.
However, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also made it clear that the assets would only be sold to Malaysians.
“We see a possibility of reducing debt by identifying government assets that we can sell.
“In fact, we may, if necessary, sell land belonging to the government. But of course, we will (only) sell it to Malaysians and not foreigners.
“That will help (in our efforts) to reduce our (national) debt,” he said at the Parliament lobby yesterday.
Dr Mahathir said efforts were underway to reduce the government’s debt.
“At the moment, the process is still ongoing. The debt is being lowered and efforts are being worked on all the time.”
Asked on the latest amount of debt, he replied: “I can’t give the exact figure but I believe it has been reduced considerably.”
Earlier, Dr Mahathir said the national debt was at a manageable level.
“It (the amount) has come down. The finance minister will know the exact figure. First, our economy has grown in the last one year, hence the debt has become smaller.
“Second, we have been able to recover quite a lot of money that was lost as well as those kept in Singapore. Third, we were also working hard to reduce the contract value of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), because if we don’t continue with it, we will have to pay a very huge compensation. So that is being managed,” he said.
Previously, the government’s debt was reported to stand at RM1.087 trillion.
On Wednesday, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas announced that the Equanimity would be sold to Genting Malaysia Bhd or its special-purpose vehicle (SPV) company for US$126 million (RM516 million).
The sale was ranked as the highest recovery to date for the government in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
Dr Mahathir was also asked whether the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) would go after past ministers after Datuk Seri Najib Razak was recently slapped with a huge tax bill.
To this, he said the IRB would go after anyone who dodged paying their taxes.
“Even the present ones (ministers)... if they don’t pay their income tax, IRB will go after them,” he said.
It was reported that Najib had been slapped with an extra tax bill of around RM1.5 billion by the IRB. The letter of demand was sent to Najib by IRB over a week ago on the backdated tax amount for the years 2011 to 2017.
IRB’s investigation assessment showed that Najib had not declared taxable income of close to RM4 billion for the period.
Dr Mahathir said during Najib’s tenure, a huge amount of tax was also imposed on certain individuals, some backdating to more than 10 years.
“That, of course, is not legal. You can’t backdate or find new ways of computing the tax, and then backdate it on those who already paid their tax according to former interpretation of the law,” he said.