KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on Bank Negara Malaysia's (BNM) forex scandal, which was tabled in Dewan Rakyat today, will not be debated.
Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker Datuk Seri Ismail Mohamad Said said the matter is not in the parliamentary Order Paper.
"However, it is up to the government to allow it to be discussed or not, because the matter of parliamentary Order Paper is for the government to decide.
"The Minister will reply after getting an answer from the government but for it is not in the Order Paper," said Ismail.
He said this when responding to Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) who requested for a debate on the RCI report which was distributed to MPs in Dewan Rakyat this morning.
Lim said it was questionable that the RCI had placed the forex losses at RM31.5 billion, citing a difference of RM21 billion.
He said the losses were stated as RM10.7 billion when he debated the matter in the 1990s in Parliament with then finance minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“It is not easy to amortize RM21 billion over 10 years as stated in the report," he said.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said had since requested for time to come up with a written reply to Lim's question.
She asked Lim to put his questions in writing and send it in. ---Reporting by FERNANDO FONG, VEENA BABULAL and ARFA YUNUS