Press Statement By Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng In Komtar, George Town On 2.1.2017.
Penang would have recorded RM1,074 million in accumulated surplus since 2008 if RM500 million had not been allocated for the Public & Affordable Housing Fund. This RM500 million Public & Affordable Housing Fund was taken out of the RM658 million in land sales by the state government, clearly showing that land sales was not the reason for the annual surpluses of the state government, which amounted to RM574 million since 2008.
The Penang state government is proud of its sterling achievement of recording annual surpluses consistently and at the same time reduced its state debts by 90% since 2008. This singular success of annual budget surpluses coupled with low debt is a result of upholding CAT governance of competency, accountability and transparency.
These annual budget surpluses is the reason why the state government is able to afford and repeats our offer to lend the Federal government RM50 million to help them keep their 2016 promise to give RM50 million for Chinese primary schools. Is the Federal government so “poor” that for the second year running, it can not even find RM50 million development funds promised for Chinese primary schools last year. Something is very wrong and shameful if the Federal government cannot even find RM50 million or 0.02% out of the entire RM261 billion 2017 budget.
Since 2008, Penang has recorded accumulated budget surpluses of RM574 million over the last 8 years, which is more than what BN achieved over the last 50 years they ruled Penang from 1957-2007 of RM373 million. Whilst our political opponents do not deny that we performed better in 8 years than they did in 50 years, they claimed that these surpluses are achieved by land sales.
The Penang state government received a total revenue of RM4,947 million since 2008. Land sales revenue since 2008 amounted to RM658 million or 13% of the total revenue of RM4,947 million. Out of the land sales revenue of RM658 million, the state government had allocated RM500 million for the Public and Affordable Housing Fund to build low cost, low-medium cost and houses below RM300,000/-.
In other words, since 2008 only RM158 million was available as contribution towards accumulated surplus of RM574 million, and towards establishing a welfare state where over RM400 million has been paid out as cash payments to 1.6 million Penangites and schools. Or hundreds of millions of ringgit for development purposes to build public infrastructure.
The previous government had also conducted land sales on a much larger scale selling 3,661 acres compared to only 106.1 acres under the present state government. And yet the present state government brought in a higher sum of RM1.1102 billion from the sale of 106.1 acres of land due to our open competitive tender system.
Compared to the different system of selling 3,661 acres by the previous BN state government that only obtained a lesser amount of RM1.0586 billion, such as the sale of reclaimed land in Tanjung Pinang at only RM1 per square feet. BN sold 36 times more land and yet received less money than the present state government, this is the change from the CAT administration that benefited Penangites!
LIM GUAN ENG
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槟城州首席部长林冠英于2017年1月2日在乔治市光大发表的文告。
若不是将售地的6亿5800万令吉当中的5亿令吉充作公屋及可负担房屋基金，槟城自2008年至今的盈余将可达到10亿7400万令吉。
若不是将售地的6亿5800万令吉当中的5亿令吉充作公屋及可负担房屋基金，槟城自2008年至今的盈余将可达到10亿7400万令吉。这笔5亿令吉的公屋及可负担房屋基金是从售地所获得的6亿5800万令吉当中拨出，因此很明显售地并不是槟城州政府自2008年获得5亿7400万令吉常年盈余的主要原因。
槟城州政府对于自2008年以来的常年盈余及减少90%州债务的成就感到引以为荣。这项常年盈余的单一成就联同低债务皆是秉持能干、公信、透明的CAT施政方针所带来的成果。
这项预算案的常年盈余就是为何州政府能负担得起并重复提出要借出5000万令吉给联邦政府以协助他们兑现2016年拨款5000万令吉予华小的承诺。联邦政府如今到底是有多穷，过去两年无法及时兑现拨款华小的承诺，并在去年仍旧无法拨款5000万令吉给华小。当中一定出现了非常大的问题而且非常可耻，因为联邦政府竟然连2017年2610亿令吉预算案当中的0.02%也就是5000万令吉也挪不出来。
自2008年，槟城8年来累积了5亿7400万令吉盈余，比国阵政府自1957至2007过去50年治理槟城所获得的3亿7300万令吉还要多。然而，当我们的政敌无法否认我们过去8年比他们过去50年的表现更佳的时候，他们就转而指控我们的盈余来自于售地所获。
自2008年槟城州政府的总收入是49亿4700万令吉。售地的收入自2008年起为6亿5800万令吉或占49亿4700万令吉总收入的13%。州政府将这6亿5800万令吉的售地收入当中的5亿令吉充作公屋及可负担房屋基金以建设廉价、中廉价及30万令吉以下的房屋。
换言之，自2008年起只有1亿5800万来自售地的收入能充作为5亿7400万令吉盈余的一部分，更别忘了州政府已经拨出4亿令吉作为各项现金福利拨给160万槟城人及学校，还有就是各项数以亿计的公共基础建设及发展。
相比之下，前朝政府所售出的土地更大更多，出售了高达3661英亩土地，而现任州政府只出售了106.1英亩土地，而且是透过公开招标以11亿1020万令吉的高价出售这106.1英亩土地。
相比当年国阵州政府在非公开招标的情形下出售3661英亩土地，并只获得10亿5860万令吉，当中包括在丹绒道光的丹绒槟榔填海地只以每方尺1令吉低价出售。国阵当年售出了比现任政府还大36倍的土地，但其收入却比现任州政府还少，这就是让槟城人获益的能干公信透明CAT管理！
林冠英