Surplus budget of RM1.22 mil tabled for Pahang, state government will also identify new resources to generate more income
By T.N.Alagesh
NST pix by Farizul Hafiz Awang
KUANTAN: The Pahang government tabled a surplus budget of RM1.22 million for next year with revenue estimated at RM739.28 million against operating expenditure of RM738.06 million.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob said the state revenue was estimated at RM739million, which would be derived from land and minerals (RM343million), forest (RM100million), water (RM5.5million), federal grant (RM105.3million) and other revenues (RM185.3million).
He said the state government will setup a special purpose vehicle (an entity) to identify new resources in the state which can help to generate a sustainable income to the state.
“I will lead and among the members will include state secretary, state legal adviser, state financial adviser, state forestry department director and state land and mines department director. We will engage the stakeholders and experts to discuss the potential new resources.
“In the past, the state government’s main revenues were from forestry, water and land but the three resources can no longer consistently channel revenues to us (state government), so we have to identify and explore other new resources,” he said when tabling the budget at the state assembly sitting here today.
Adnan said the state government will focus also on four fields namely housing, education, welfare and new resources to ensure the people will not be sidelined and at the same time look into new sources of income.