“As I mentioned before, I do not want to argue over the terms that were used,” he told reporters in the Parliament lobby.
He also maintained that the oil royalty payments had been made in advance by the federal government.
“Whatever I stated in the Dewan Rakyat was true, and it was recognised by the Kelantan menteri besar,” he added.
Ahmad Yaakob had acknowledged receiving payments of RM15.75 million in September but said this was categorised as compassionate payments to Kelantan for 2019.
Lim said the issue should be discussed rationally, without “losing control of emotions”.
“What is important is that not only has the federal government made advance payments, we have also fulfilled the demands from Kelantan,” he said.
He also said his ministry had approved a new request by Kelantan for an advance on a RM100 million loan for operational costs, including salary payments for civil servants.
“This shows that the federal government is concerned. Even though we are condemned and criticised, we still want to make sure the authority of the respective governments follows the set criteria.
“Assistance will still be given by the federal government to the Kelantan state government.”
Lim also slammed opposition leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s claim that Bumiputera entrepreneurs were only allocated RM50 million in the 2020 Budget compared to RM100 million for Chinese entrepreneurs and RM20 million for Indian entrepreneurs.
He said this was baseless as the government had actually allocated RM1.445 billion for Bumiputera entrepreneurs.