At a press conference here, Lim showed a table from the 2018 budget listing the details of the RM34 million allocated for the construction and upgrading of airports in Peninsular Malaysia.

“There’s no mention of Penang airport in the budget document specifically,” said Lim who has been in a war of words with transport minister Wee Ka Siong on the airport’s expansion.

“Wee says there is a specific allocation for the airport. Also, RM34 million is too little to expand the Penang airport. What is required is RM700 million to about RM1 billion to expand it,” the DAP chairman said.

Wee recently claimed that Lim, as finance minister, had sought a private partner to expand the airport through a private finance initiative instead of using funds available for the Penang airport project.

Lim and his Pakatan Harapan (PH) colleagues hit back at Wee, saying the latter had cancelled the project when he assumed the role of transport minister after the Sheraton Move in 2020. Wee has since denied this.

The Sheraton Move refers to the action of a group of MPs who quit the PH coalition, causing its collapse.

The airport was last upgraded in 2012 and can handle 6.5 million passengers per annum.

However, the airport had numbers beyond 8 million passengers per annum in 2019 and the PH government, which was then still in power, decided to go ahead with the expansion project.

Separately, Lim asked Wee if Prasarana Malaysia Bhd, which operates the Kelana Jaya LRT line, would face penalties over the disruption of services last week.