Former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim has expressed astonishment over the indecision by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the central bank's foreign exchange losses on whether to call him as a witness.

Anwar, who is currently serving a jail sentence for sodomy, said as the finance minister of the time when the losses took place, the decision couldn't have been difficult to make.

"It would be farcical if this inquiry is concluded without hearing my testimony.

"There have been repeated references made to me in the course of the evidence so far recorded, which also makes it imperative that I am allowed to testify.

"The commission has on several occasions said that they want to get to the truth of the matter. They must know that the best way to get to the truth would be to allow material and critical witnesses like myself and (Dr Mahathir Mohamad), who was prime minister at the time, to testify," he said in a statement today.

The RCI headed by its chairperson Mohd Sidek Hassan, who was chief secretary to the government, is tasked to investigate Bank Negara's foreign exchange losses that took place between the 1980s and the early part of 1990s.

On Aug 30, Mahathir's lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla and Anwar's lawyer Gurdial Singh Nijar told reporters that they had asked the commission whether the two leaders would be called.

Haniff said the conducting officers could not confirm because the decision rests with the commissioners. Gurdial said he was told, "We will let you know."

Anwar was finance minister from 1991 until his sacking by Mahathir in 1998. Mahathir was prime minister from 1981 until 2003.

Both Anwar and Mahathir have since buried the hatchet and are now working together to oppose the ruling BN under Prime Minister Najib Razak.

One witness at the RCI, former Finance Ministry deputy secretary-general Clifford Francis Herbert, said he had been tasked by Anwar to check on the losses and he reported back that it amounted to about RM30 billion.

Another witness, former Bank Negara assistant governor Abdul Khalid Murad testified that Anwar had told him that he (Anwar) would need to resign if the amount of the losses becomes public knowledge.

Anwar had vehemently denied this as "malicious insinuation".