Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng appeared to have outdone Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today on announcing bonuses for civil servants in their 2018 budget.

Lim announced that the Penang civil servants with "good service records" would be getting a bonus of RM2,000 to be paid next month.

“We will be paying the amount by the end of this year, not next year,” he said.

The good service record is to be determined by state secretary Farizan Darus.

Those who don't fall under this category will be given a payout of RM1,000.

Najib, on the other hand, had announced RM1,500 special payment for all federal government employees to be paid out in two tranches.

For their respective 2017 budgets, Lim had announced a half month bonus with a minimum payout of RM700 for Penang, compared to Najib's RM1,000 special payment for federal government employees.