Lim said the present government was still paying the debts of the previous administration, including those from 1MDB.
“The (Pakatan Harapan) government has to take responsibility, just like the other (debts), but the previous government was clever in hiding these facts.
“When we took over (Putrajaya), the overall debt was 80% of gross domestic product, which was reduced to 77% for this June,” he said during the question-and-answer session.
He also said it was not right to look at the country’s direct debts without considering the previous debts also borne by the present government.
He was responding to Ismail Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera), who asked why national debts had gone up to RM113 billion since PH took over in May 2018, despite the sale of national assets.
“Debts are not going down,” Ismail added.
Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (PAS-Kubang Kerian) then asked Lim for the total assets and debts of 1MDB, as stated in the 2018 Auditor-General’s Report.
Lim said he hoped Tuan Ibrahim had read the report as some of the debts were under Minister of Finance Incorporated.
“These were set up under the old government,” he said. “We have to bear this, but we can afford it.”
Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian) then asked about 1MDB’s assets while Shahidan Kassim (BN-Arau) called Lim a liar.
Lim demanded that Shahidan retract his statement, following which Mohd Shahar Abdullah (BN-Paya Besar) said Lim should first apologise for accusing BN of stealing goods and services tax funds.
Shahidan eventually retracted his statement following orders from speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.
Lim said he was unsure of the assets held by 1MDB as there were several units in a Singapore bank, the value of which he did not know. He also said there was land sold by 1MDB which initially belonged to the government, such as the land belonging to Tabung Haji.
This caused a further stir among BN MPs, with Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim (BN-Baling) accusing Lim of confusing the house as the deal had raked in profits.
However, Ariff told the MPs to follow the house rules as it was merely a question-and-answer session, not a debate.
Earlier, to an original question on the country’s reserves, Lim said international reserves for 2018 stood at RM419.6 billion, enough to support 7.4 months of imports.
In 2018, he said, federal government revenue stood at RM232.9 billion while expenditure stood at RM287.1 billion.