KUCHING: A Sarawak minister has described Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng as naive for warning that the state may become bankrupt in three years’ time.
“He must have assumed that the reserves would be depleted in three years,” said Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah in a comment on Lim’s remarks regarding the annual state budget.
“That reasoning would be correct only if there’s no revenue coming in and Sarawak spends only its reserves.
“The state financial office and advisers know what they’re doing and won’t be stupid enough to prepare a budget that would dig into the state’s reserves, affecting our credit rating by international rating agencies.”
At a dinner organised by Sarawak DAP here on Friday, Lim said Sarawak would exhaust its reserves in three years if the state government were to continue to set the annual budget at RM11 billion.
Karim said Sarawak had, for 10 years, been getting positive ratings from agencies like Standard and Poor’s, and Moody’s Investor Service.
“Their ratings for Sarawak have always been better than their ratings for Malaysia,” he said.
He claimed that the reserves of all the other states in Malaysia were in total not worth even half of Sarawak’s reserves.
“Guan Eng should emulate Sarawak instead of coming up with a statement that would only show his naivety,” he said.
Karim said the yearly revenue from the state’s investments would easily surpass its projected budget and that this had been the case through the years.
SUPP Youth chief Michael Tiang described Lim’s statement as “foolish” and said he had never come across any finance minister from any country who would say something that could tarnish the nation’s financial integrity.
Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg had earlier criticised Lim, saying the finance minister was apparently unaware that the state could depend on revenue from oil, gas and other sources and that its financial management was excellent.
“This year, I will implement a 5% tax on oil and gas exports, which will earn Sarawak RM3 billion,” he said.
According to Abang Johari, the state’s income in 2018 was RM7 billion. -FreeMalaysiaToday
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