No budget, salary worries for Terengganu
KUALA TERENGGANU: There should be no 2019 Budget worries for Terengganu, thanks to the Federal Government’s injection of fresh funds into the state.
This means civil servants in Terengganu are assured that they will still get their salaries, at least for now. Like Kelantan, Terengganu, too, faced the ignominy of not being able to pay its civil servants.
However, now that the Pas-led states have withdrawn their legal suits against Petronas and the Pakatan Harapan-led Federal Government — concerning the payment of oil royalty — there should be no worries.
Terengganu Menteri Besar Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar said the state had received nearly RM1 billion in federal funds, and was expecting another RM500 million towards the end of the year.
He said more than RM600 million had been forwarded to the state’s coffers last March and RM300 million, last month.
The RM500 million, he said, was to be paid for the SeptemberFebruary term.
“I’m confident that Terengganu will continue to receive what it deserves, as per the agreement between the state and the Federal Government. These are fair payments, taking into consideration our allocation in accordance with the oil royalty portion for us. I, therefore, will take into consideration this fact when tabling the 2019 Budget,” he said here yesterday.
Samsuri is expected to table Terengganu’s 2019 Budget at the state legislative assembly sitting from Oct 25 to 29.
Meanwhile, he said the Kuala Terengganu City Centre’s RM248 million drawbridge in Tanjung would be ready by February.
He also said the drawbridge, which was supposed to be ready last month, had faced some hiccups with the lift mechanism.
“The bridge clearance is some 40ft (about 12.12m), enough for Class C fishing vessels (and ferries) to safely pass through (from the South China Sea to the Dataran Shahbandar jetty). Thus there should be no worries.”
Among the features of the drawbridge are an 18th floor restaurant, a bird’s-eye viewing gallery and a photo gallery.
It will link KTCC and Seberang Takir towards the north, thus, reducing road travel time to the Sultan Mahmud Airport to just 10 minutes, compared with the 30 minutes currently. It will be an iconic landmark as it is one of its kind in Southeast Asia.
Its surrounding area will be developed with boat docking facilities, as well as a KTCC Mall with 200 shops, a cineplex, a bowling alley and the 30-storey Kuala Terengganu City Council tower.
Once ready, road users from here can choose either the Sultan Ismail Bridge (Pulau RusaManir), Bukit Losong Bridge (Losong-Teluk Pasu), Sultan Mahmud Bridge (Kuala Terengganu-Bukit Tunggal) or the drawbridge to go to Kuala Nerus.