KOTA BARU: Kelantan received payment of “wang ihsan” (compassionate fund) from the federal government on Sept 27, Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob (pix) told the State Assembly today.
He said it was not royalty payment as mentioned by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday.
“The statement (by Lim) is not true and confuses the people. What is claimed by the state government is oil and gas royalties. What was given is compassionate payment.
“What was meant by the Finance Minister was the advance payment (including for next year) was compassionate money, not oil royalty ... Indeed, we have received the compassionate payment last Sept 17 amounting RM15,749,561.50,“ he added.
He was responding to a supplementary question by Wan Hassan Wan Ibrahim (PAS-Semerak) who wanted to know if it was true that the federal government had made the royalty payment, including advance, to Kelantan.
To a supplementary question from Hilmi Abdullah (PAS-Guchil) on estimated amount of royalty, including arrears, that the federal government should pay Kelantan, Ahmad said it depended on the annual revenue.
“For example, in 2017, the royalty that Kelantan was supposed to receive was RM1.03 billion. This (information) is obtained from the Kelantan State Economic Planning Unit (UPEN),” he added.
Yesterday, Lim was reported to have said that royalty payment had been made last month as instructed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. - Bernama
