This follows Liang’s latest statement, released today, in which he again sets out to pick holes in the Penang chief minister’s arguments on how the state came to have a budget surplus of RM574 million, accumulated from 2008 to 2015.
After Lim had on Jan 4, defended himself against Liang’s previous attack against the Penang government by referring to the annual auditor-general’s report which endorsed their accounts, the latter used the same to argue otherwise.
“What has shown an explosive growth was the item called ‘Premium Tanah – Pemberian Hak Milik’ which has jumped every year from RM19 million in 2008 to RM324 million in 2015.
“The auditor-general had also explained that this item is revenue from land sales. Between 2008 to 2015, it totals RM1.22 billion – clearly higher than the RM574 million accumulated state surplus,” Liang said.
The Simpang Renggam (Johor) MP also pointed to the A-G’s report to highlight that revenue from quit rent in Penang had remained static since the DAP-led government took over the state.
“In his statement last week, Lim claimed that the revenue that was used to pay for the three-fold increase in state spending over the period 2008 to 2015, came from quit rent and other land fees.
“However, the A-G’s report clearly shows that quit rent revenue has remained static. It only grew from RM93 million in 2008 to RM104 million in 2015 – clearly insufficient to pay for the big jump in the state’s expenditure.”
Meanwhile, while Lim had said that funds from sales made by state investment arm Penang Development Corporation (PDC) could not be mixed with that of the government, Liang noted how the Penang government had indeed received payments for land sales under PDC.
“There is a separate accounting item which shows payment was received by the Penang government, amounting to RM173.5 million between 2013 and 2015. This would mean total proceeds from the sale of state land should now total about RM1.4 billion,” Liang said.
Another source of revenue that Liang had extracted from the Penang government accounts endorsed by the A-G, was from the closing down of various state trustee accounts.
“Our examination of the accounts shows that between 2010 and 2014, the Penang government closed down various state trustee accounts such as the ‘Akaun Perumahan Awam Kos Rendah’ and the ‘Pinjaman Projek Bekalan Air Luar Bandar’, and transferred the balance over to the state consolidated fund and recognised it as state revenues.
“This amount, which totals at least RM240.19 million, also helps to deceptively boost the state surplus,” he alleged.
Liang said that based on the A-G’s report itself, Penang would have a deficit instead of budget surplus if not for the sale of state land.
“Taking out the effects of state land sales and accounting tricks related to the transfer of trustee accounts to be recognised as state revenue, the Penang government would have been in increasingly severe budget deficits every year since 2010.
“Instead of an accumulated surplus of RM574 million from 2008 to 2015, it would have accumulated a deficit of RM1.057 billion,” Liang said, especially considering the continuing increase in its operating expenditure, which this year was set to be five times that of 2008.
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