PETALING JAYA: Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng says newly minted Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is being inconsistent over what amounts to national debt. “At that time, he (Lim) claimed that lease payments are just normal operating expenses and not debt and should not be included in the state debt calculations,” he said in a statement on Monday (May 28). The war of words over the issue were triggered after Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that the national debt figure stood at RM1 trillion. Lim later said that the RM1 trillion figure quoted by Dr Mahathir included total government debt, government guarantees and lease payments for public-private partnerships (PPP). Najib then hit back, pointing out that Lim’s remarks had confirmed that the national debt actually remains as RM686.8bil, accounting for 50.8% of the Gross Domestic Product.

Source: The Star May 28, 2018 10:10 UTC