The Dewan Rakyat sitting resumed today with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad answering on behalf of Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng during the question-and-answer session.

This was regarding a question on the government's proposal to take a loan from Japan.

The media later quizzed Lim on this, pointing out that by convention, the minister or deputy minister should answer questions posed to the Finance Ministry in the House.

However, the DAP leader saw nothing wrong with the prime minister answering on his behalf.

"The prime minister is the most powerful (individual in the executive branch). Of course, he has the right (to answer a question on my behalf)," he said.

"This shows he has the accountability attitude on the matter that was brought up (to the government)," added the Bagan MP.

According to today's Order Paper,the first question was posed to the finance minister by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (BN-Bagan Datuk).

Zahid asked the finance minister to state the rationale for Malaysia to obtain a financial loan from Japan, with a higher currency value than the ringgit, despite the low interest rate.

"Will it not add to the current national debt ?" he asked.

Mahathir responded that it cannot be ascertained if Tokyo would provide such low-interest loans.

He said this is because the previous BN administration had taken high-interest loans from Japan, resulting in costs that were too high for the government to bear.