Penang Gerakan has accused Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng of "poor budgeting" and wants to know how the state government plans to finance its huge deficit budget.

Its treasurer Ng Fook On also queried why Lim did not spend money in the state’s budget for the past six years to “mitigate or alleviate” the sufferings of the rakyat.

“How can he approve, endorse and present such an unrealistic budget in the state legislative assembly?

“How can the state government perform or have good governance when the budget is poorly prepared and managed?” Ng asked.

On Nov 15, Lim announced a deficit budget of RM667.1 million for 2017, the ninth time since he took over as chief minister in 2008.

But Lim clarified that the deficit budget will be supported by the state’s accumulated savings or reserves.

“The state recorded a surplus of RM71.78 million at the end of the 2015 financial year, and this contributed to the RM952.53 million in our reserves,” he had said in his speech when announcing Budget 2017.

In a move to ward off criticisms over a deficit budget, Lim explained that the increase for 2017 may be abrupt, but it would not jeopardise the state’s operational expenditure.

Ng however asked: “Is the state government going to sell more land or reclaim more land to sustain the budget at the end of the year?”

“Secondly, we can see from the comparison of actual versus budget, the actual spending each year is lesser than the budget for 2009 to 2015."

He said a good budget is one that is “realistic and achievable”, and actual spending should be reflective of the budget.

“In the case of the Penang government, the actual spending through the years deviated from the budgets (announced). This can mean either the budgeted expenses are overestimated or the state chooses not to spend,” Ng concluded.