Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had accused Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng of spreading "half-truths and outright lies" over the Tun Razak Exchange project (above).
This was after Lim said Putrajaya was forced to fork out RM2.8 billion to bail-out the project to ensure that it does not fail.
"While I am happy that the government has now decided to continue with the TRX project which will bring tens of thousands of new jobs and establish a world-class financial centre right here in Kuala Lumpur, I want to point out that Lim has been spreading half-truths and outright lies in his statement today about TRX City Sdn Bhd (TRXC), the owner of the 70 acres and 486 acres in the TRX and Bandar Malaysia land and projects respectively.
"Lim himself admits that even with a further 'up to' RM2.8 billion injection by Minter of Finance (MOF) Inc, the TRX project will be worth at least RM7.8 billion and show a profit.
"Surely it cannot be called a bail-out if the money is to be used to generate a profit?" he posed in a statement today.
Najib said MOF Inc's takeover of TRXC for a nominal sum of RM1 on March 31, 2017, from 1MDB was necessary for the latter's rationalisation plan.
He added that following the takeover of MOF Inc, it assumed the payment of certain 1MDB liabilities from April 1, 2017.
Najib said Lim had failed to highlight the significant land asset value of the TRX project as well as the Bandar Malaysia project, the latter which he said was worth RM30 billion.
The land parcels were originally already owned by the government but were transferred to 1MDB at a nominal sum before coming back the hands of the government together with the former 1MDB subsidiaries' liabilities.
"More importantly, no monies from TRXC were misappropriated by 1MDB. As practised by many companies, approximately RM3 billion of inter-company loans were made, over time, by TRXC to 1MDB.
"All these inter-company were repaid by 1MDB effective 31 March 2017, through a combination of cash repayments and a set-off against dividends paid by TRXC to 1MDB.
"These repayments were carried out with the approval of MOF Inc and were properly reviewed and signed off by the auditors of TRXC in the 31 March 2017 financial statements," he said.
Najib said since TRXC was 100 percent owned by 1MDB which was in-turn owned by MOF Inc, 1MDB "cannot be stealing RM3 billion from itself to service its own loan".
Lim had claimed that 1MDB misappropriated RM3.067 billion out of a RM3.688 billion transfer from the federal government to TRXC.
“Once again, I caution Lim against making such factually incorrect statements as part of the Pakatan Harapan's political vengeance against me and the previous BN government.
"Not only is it unprofessional, it spooks investors in the currency, bond and stock markets. Surely the well-being of our economy is much more important than the issuance of politically-motivated statements?" Najib said.
Source : https://m.malaysiakini.com/news/430733
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