Pahang state agencies will be required to channel 50 percent of their annual profits to the government from next year.

Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob said the move was a short-term strategy for the state government to increase revenue.

"The agencies must give 50 percent of their profits to the state government while their subsidiaries have to pass 50 per cent of their profits to the agencies," he said when tabling the 2011 Budget.

This is the 13th consecutive deficit budget tabled by the Pahang government.

The state government has 18 agencies, including the Pahang

Foundation, Pahang State Development Corporation, Pahang Unit Trust and the Tioman Development Authority.

Adnan said the the 2011 deficit is less than this year's - dropping from  RM92.48 million to RM68.2 million.

Of the RM871,117,390 for the budget next year, RM600,424,140 is for administration and the rest for development.

Adnan said:"The budget strategy involves reducing the deficit gap

by increasing productivity and exploring new fields that can generate income such as water and mining royalties as well as cutting costs without affecting the quality of government services."

"For the long term, we will also be involved in large-scale projects in

biotechnology and other new fields to generate income," he added.

He said the state government would request help from the federal government from time to time to carry out various development programmes.

-Bernama