Najib slams govt for halting education loan for Felda students studying abroad
PUCHONG: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today slammed the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government for terminating the Felda Overseas Special Student Fund.
In his Facebook post today, Najib said the fund, which was set up to provide scholarships worth between RM500,000 to RM800,000 per student among Felda settlers’ children who study abroad, have been cancelled early this year.
“What I disclosed in July was finally confirmed by the PH government in the Parliament yesterday.
“Hundreds of billions worth of funds have been borrowed, sold and looted by PH since GE14.
“Meanwhile, all programmes to aid the people are being abolished,” he said.
Najib also derogated the government for using funds on unnecessary projects rather than investing in education.
“They (PH) say people are lazy, only cronies are not. That is why PH is strict.
“They only give public funds for PROTIGA, the flying car and the RM46 billion Penang Transport Master Plan project,” he said.
Yesterday, The Malaysian Insight reported the Deputy Economic Affairs Minister Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin saying that Felda Overseas Special Student Fund was discontinued due to financial constraints.
Radzi said Felda’s cash flow was volatile when PH took over the government from Barisan Nasional on May 8, 2018.
Meanwhile, on a different posting, Najib accused the government of trying to steal the people’s money by imposing additional taxes worth RM3.98 billion on Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).
It was alleged that TNB did not pay sufficient taxes from 2015 to 2017.
“As a listed company, TNB pays billions of ringgit annually. (How can TNB be suddenly accused of not paying enough taxes?),” he said.
Today, The Malaysian Reserve reported that TNB owed RM1.43 billion for 2015, RM1.24 billion (2016) and RM1.3 billion (2017), bringing the total to RM3.98 billion, according to the notices sent by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to the utility giant.
However, Najib did not mention that this was not the first time TNB was slapped with notices from IRB on tax issues.
On Nov 23, 2015, the company received additional assessment notices for 2013 and 2014, for a sum of RM985.57 million and RM1.08 billion respectively by the tax authority.
By Fifi Harteeny Marzuki
