Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah revealed that any letter of guarantee or similar government undertaking on matters of finance have always been tabled in Parliament during his tenure as finance minister.

He said this in reply to Rafizi Ramli ( left )(PKR-Pandan), who interrupted his speech to ask whether it was proper for the government not to be transparent about its RM11 billion support letter for 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) bonds.

"This is something new to me. As far as I know, be it a letter of guarantee, or any instrument of comfort, anything related to finance, we have always tabled it in Parliament," Tengku Razaleigh said.

The Umno veteran, widely referred to as Ku Li, also reiterated his stand that the country's economy is in dire straits now and repeated his urging that the goods and services tax (GST) implementation be postponed.

“The people deserve to know if GST will benefit the country or if it will only pay those who have lent us money and the bondholders. The reason for GST’s implementation should not be kept a secret,” he said.

The government issued a letter of support for two series of bonds raised by 1MDB in 2012 and 2013, totalling US$3 billion (RM11 billion).

The government initially denied the existence of the letter when it was exposed by several opposition lawmakers, before admitting to the letter.

The government finally admitted in Parliament recently that it would be liable for the RM11 billion if 1MDB is unable to repay the bonds.