PSC report: Putrajaya’s debt, liabilities rose by RM3.5b from 2017 to 2018
KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — The federal government’s debts and liabilities increased by RM3.5 billion at the end of 2018 from the same period in 2017, as revealed by the Special Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on the Budget.
The report broke down the debt and liability into four categories, namely the federal government’s debt proper, the loan guarantees it bears, the nett debt from 1MDB, and other liabilities.
For the end of 2017, the federal government’s debt proper stood at RM686 billion, its loan guarantees at RM102.1 billion, 1MDB’s nett debt at RM38.3 billion, and other liabilities at RM260.1 billion.
By the same period the next year, the federal government’s debt proper was RM741 billion, its loan guarantees at RM132.7, 1MDB’s nett debt at RM RM32.2 billion, and other liabilities at RM184.9 billion.
The report explained the increase in the debt proper of approximately RM54.2 billion from the end of 2017 to the end of 2018 was to finance the deficit for 2018, where the loan was used to finance a part of the development expenditure to implement projects related to the 11th Malaysian Plan.
As well as this, there was also an increase in loan guarantees to fund public transportation projects, including the East Coast Rail Link, the Mass Rapid Transit 2, the Light Rapid Transit 3, and the Sarawak Pan-Borneo Highway.
The noticeable reduction in 1MDB’s debt of RM6.1 billion is due to factoring in the remainder of the principal debt. Meanwhile the other liabilities, which include public-private partnership (PPP), the Private Finance Initiative Account, and BLT Sdn Bhd construction, recorded a reduction of RM75.2 billion due to the readjusting of commitments under the PPP following checks and auditing, double counting, the cancellation of projects and the payment of commitments made via allocations from the yearly budget.
With this, the federal government’s total debts and liabilities stood at approximately RM1.087.3 trillion by the end of 2017 and at RM1.090.8 trillion by the end of 2018.
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