PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said the Auditor-General’s Report released today stated that Putrajaya’s debt stood at RM979.814 billion last year compared with RM879.56 billion in 2020.

In a statement, he pointed out that this meant that the ratio of the federal government’s debt to the gross domestic product (GDP) was now at 63.4%.

According to Wong, the increase in federal debt had caused the government’s overall liability in 2021 to be at RM1.3 trillion, or 84% of GDP.

Although the government’s financial statement for 2021 received a certificate without reprimand from the auditor-general, he said, several matters highlighted in the report required Putrajaya’s attention.

“This includes the practice of using new loans to repay mature loans, the reduction in development expenditure, and the increase in federal debt,” he said.

The Auditor-General’s Report said the government took RM217.2 billion in gross loans in 2021, an increase of 11.6% from RM194.55 billion in 2020. Of this, RM113.76 billion, or 52.4%, was used for the principal payment of mature loans.

On interest payments, the report noted that 16.3% of revenue collected by the government was used to pay loan interests.

“That means that for every RM1 in revenue collected, 16 sen is being used to pay loan interests,” Wong said.