He said while the previous administration had agreed to cancel these debts, such promises were mere lip service.

“There were no allocations under the 2021 and 2022 budgets to waive the loans. I stand by this,” he said during a forum at Universiti Utara Malaysia in Sintok, Kedah, today.

“It was only when I took over (that) I allocated and signed off on RM990 million in early allocations to cancel the RM8.3 billion in outstanding loans by Felda settlers.”

In July 2021, then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that his government agreed to waive the loans of Felda settlers amounting to RM8.3 billion, subject to certain conditions.

He was reported to have said the waiver would reduce the burden of the loans on settlers by some 80%, and that it was needed to “allow Felda to restart” and be on par with other international plantations.

Earlier today, Muhyiddin denied Anwar’s claim that when he was prime minister, he did not do anything to waive the Felda settlers’ debts.

Muhyiddin accused Anwar of telling a “big lie”, saying it was under his PN administration that this programme was initiated, although it was halted following “cash flow” issues.

He pointed out that in a written parliamentary reply on Feb 23, law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said said the government was putting a halt to an initiative started by Muhyiddin’s administration to abolish a portion of Felda settlers’ loans amounting to RM8.3 billion.

Azalina said the government would not be able to carry on writing off the loans as it resulted in a “huge impact” on Felda’s finances.

Muhyiddin also noted that former Felda chairman Idris Jusoh issued a statement on Feb 24 confirming that RM8.3 billion of the settlers’ total debt of RM12.1 billion was waived in 2021, and it had a major impact on Felda’s cash flow.