The RM30 million required for Selangor's free tertiary education pilot project will be passed on to Universiti Selangor (Unisel) from MB Incorporated (MBI) through an inter-company transfer.

NONE As such, said Rafizi Ramli, the chief executive in the state economic advisor’s office, land belonging to Unisel will not have to be 'sold' - in the conventional sense of the word - to raise funds.

“What the menteri besar conveyed to me is that this will be an inter-company transfer where MBI will lend or advance the cash to Unisel in exchange for the land,” he said on the sidelines of a PKR ceramah last night.

Rafizi said this arrangement is possible because Unisel is a subsidiary of MBI.

“The (200 hectares) of land was originally given to Talam Corporation for the second phase of Unisel, which it didn't manage to develop. So, it was taken back during the debt restructuring exercise,” he said.

The value of the land is in fact higher than the RM30 million advanced by MBI, but the real value “will only be unlocked when the whole scheme is redeveloped”, he claimed.

It was initially anticipated that the state government would have to liquidate some of its assets, including the land, to raise the money.

Rafizi explained that the figure of RM30 million was drawn from Unisel’s indication to the state government that its estimated operational costs - usually covered by fees - is RM15 million for six months.

NONE “So RM30 million is what we came up with as a stop-gap measure within two days. If the federal government had persisted with the freeze (on student loans), we would have had to put it the next state budget,” he said.

The National Higher Education Fund Corporation had initially frozen loans to Selangor-owned varsities to “test” Pakatan Rakyat’s commitment to free education.

                            

However, this was lifted last Friday after a letter was issued by the Higher Education Ministry, even though its minister had approved the freeze.  

Grants for Kuis

Rafizi said a similar arrangement is not possible for another university in the state, the International Islamic University College Selangor (Kuis).

“Kuis is not owned by MBI, but by the Selangor Islamic Council and funding is usually given via grants,” he said.

In an interview with Radio Bangsar Utama on Monday, Rafizi said the RM30 million will be split between Unisel and Kuis.

Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said yesterday that he will make announcements soon on the free education project and meet with the Unisel board.