Following finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz’s statement yesterday that the government faced a RM17 billion shortfall to repay 1MDB’s total outstanding debt, Najib claimed 1MDB would be RM9.7 billion in the black if it sold its land in the Bandar Malaysia project valued at RM12 billion and enforced an Abu Dhabi guarantee to bear the cost of a US$3.5 billion (RM14.7 billion) bond.

“This statement only confirms that our former finance minister is indeed financially illiterate,” Pua said in a statement today.

“Firstly, a first-year accountancy student will be able to educate Najib that he has completely confused a company’s ‘balance sheet’ with its ‘profit and loss’ statements.

“A ‘balance sheet’ typically records a company’s assets and debts, while the ‘profit and loss’ talks about 1MDB’s accumulated revenue (very little) and cost (including massive interest expenses) over the past 13 years.

“Secondly, it is utter stupidity to say that if the Abu Dhabi guarantee of US$3.5 billion could be enforced, and that’s a very, very big ‘if’ – the matter is in the UK courts at this point of time – then 1MDB gets away scot free, and will get to keep its remaining assets. Guarantees don’t quite work that way.”

Pua said that Najib seemed to have forgotten that the Bandar Malaysia land was owned by the government, before it was sold to 1MDB at a bargain price.

If the Bandar Malaysia land could indeed be sold for RM12 billion, he said, the government should pocket the entire proceeds for other development projects and welfare benefits.

“Why should it be used to pay 1MDB debts when 1MDB has added zero value onto the land?” he asked.