GEORGE TOWN: Penang hopes the federal government would approve more allocation for the state’s infrastructure projects under Budget 2023 that will be tabled tomorrow.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow (pix) said the state government had submitted a list of 126 projects from 20 state agencies worth RM17.72 billion for consideration by the federal government in the Budget 2023 and from that amount, RM2.9 billion is needed initially.
“During a recent meeting with the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz requested the Penang state government to submit to the ministry projects that are critical, especially infrastructure.
“We have submitted a list of 23 projects worth RM14.03 billion to the MoF on Sept 14 for consideration,” he told the media here today.
Earlier, Chow announced that the state government would distribute a one-off subsistence allowance of RM500 for 5,262 paddy farmers.
He said this allocation involved a financial implication of RM2.63 million that would be distributed directly into the accounts of the paddy farmers registered with the Penang State Department of Agriculture and is expected to be deposited this month.
Chow said there are 12,105.59 hectares of paddy fields with 5,262 farmers in Penang.
Even if the area of rice output is not as big as in other states, he said output statistics for 2020 showed that the average rice output for Penang is 4.831 metric tonnes per hectare (mt/ha).
“This exceeds the average national output of 4.039 mt/ha. For the average off-season output of 2021, Penang recorded 5.595 mt/ha.-Bernama
