Terengganu has disputed the recent amount of 'goodwill payment' ( wang ehsan ), given by the federal government to the state in lieu of oil royalty payments.

Finance Ministry parliamentary secretary Hashim Ismail said in Parliament today that the federal government has given a 'goodwill payment' of RM521.8 million to Terengganu last year.

Terengganu exco member Mustafa Ali, however, disputed the figure, saying that the total amount should be significantly higher than sum mentioned. He told malaysiakini that it should be between RM800 million and RM1 billion.

Mustafa said that the state government received RM432 million in February last year as oil royalty payment for the second half of 1999. The hike in the oil prices since then would mean that the amount should be much higher than the announced figure, he said.

He wanted the Finance Ministry to clarify whether the amount announced is payment for the first half of last year or the full year.

No discrimination

Hashim told the Parliament today that the federal government has so far allocated RM480 million for the year 2000/2001 to implement the programmes and projects under the special payment scheme.

He said that up to March this year, the federal government has spent RM89 million of the 'goodwill payment' which included RM7.6 million for the Program Mesra Rakyat, RM298,648 for the Disaster Fund, RM40 million for the management of state education institutions, RM35.6 million for the Terengganu Education Fund, RM500,000 for welfare programmes, RM1.9 million for the Special Programme for Entrepreneur Development and RM3.1 million for the Special Programme of Rural Development.

Hashim's claim that there was no discrimination in the disbursements of the fund, citing the case of the provision of 2,000 computers for students, was however greeted by thumps of protest from opposition MPs.

"The government has also given RM200 to each poor person during the Hari Raya and allocated RM200 (to each poor person) in the Tionghua community during the Chinese New Year," he said.

No pay cut

Meanwhile, Mustafa said that oil royalty, which has been denied to the state, would have made up about 75 to 80 percent of the state budget.

"Without the income from the oil royalty, we have to abandon some of our development projects," he said.

However, he said that there are no plans for a pay cut in the civil service for now.

Early this month, the Terengganu state government filed a law suit in the Kuala Lumpur High Court against national oil company Petronas and the federal government, demanding for the oil royalty payments to the state to be reinstated immediately.

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