PETALING JAYA: Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz today called Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak’s (pix) claim that the government has yet to pay 1Malaysia Development Berhad’s (1MDB) principal debt baseless.
He said this in rebutting the Pekan MP’s remark yesterday that not a single sen of public funds was used by the government to repay the principal amount of 1MDB debts.
Tengku Zafrul explained that the federal government will begin servicing the principal debt once some of the bonds issued by the sovereign fund and its subsidiaries mature by May this year. The debt servicing will continue to be paid until 2039.
He was responding to Lim Guan Eng (Pakatan Harapan-Bagan), who earlier asked if it was true that not a sen had been paid on the 1MDB debts.
“The balance of our commitment is about RM38 billion,” Tengku Zafrul replied to his predecessor during Question Time.