GEORGE TOWN – Lim Guan Eng is amused by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s claim that he had secretly used a government guarantee while serving as finance minister to underwrite a RM2 billion loan for the Penang Transport Master Plan (PTMP) mega project.
He said that it is funny that such a claim is being made when the Asian Development Bank, the organisation that reportedly approved the loan, is a highly respected international institution.
“I do not think the bank will simply approve a loan if Penang has no capacity to repay it,” he told The Vibes.
Lim said the loan was accorded to Penang for its plans to develop a LRT system as part of the PTMP.
“I will issue a statement soon on this matter,” Lim said after attending a closed-door briefing with Penang DAP at Wisma DAP here yesterday.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Najib said that the approval under Lim to underwrite the loan was done secretly in January 2019.
He said it was not announced to the public and not reported by any media at that time, and was only made known after it was revealed in Parliament last week.
Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz said in a recent parliamentary reply that his government will not proceed with providing a government guarantee for the US$500 million (RM2.03 billion) loan by ADB to finance the LRT project.
He said that if it went ahead, the fiscal burden on Putrajaya would affect efforts to recover the economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Tengku Zafrul, the ministry, under Lim’s former Pakatan Harapan administration, had received a letter from the ADB dated January 25, 2019, notifying of Penang’s intention to take up the loan for its RM9.5 billion rail project.
“However, in line with the country's revised revenue and income projection and in view of the pandemic, the finance ministry has decided not to proceed with the ADB loan amounting to US$500 million, or RM2 billion,” he said.
The rescinding of the agreement to guarantee the RM2 billion loan is seen as a major setback in Penang’s aim to develop the PTMP’s development projects estimated to cost a total of some RM46 billion, with the LRT system from Komtar to the Penang International Airport in Bayan Lepas being an integral part of it.
Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Daniel Gooi Zi Sen said in a statement that the decision to withdraw the federal guarantee for the LRT mirrors what Penang has been saying all this while that the federal side tends to sideline the state and treat it as a “stepchild”.
Gooi said that the transport masterplan is a proactive initiative to overcome the increasing congestion on the roads here and stimulate the economy which is hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
He alleged that Penang is being sidelined again because of political differences. – The Vibes, November 29, 2020.
