The previous administration has conditioned Malaysians to expect “free money”, but the government does not have such money to give out, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“People expect us to give free money to them because this is a habit developed by (former prime minister) Najib (Abdul Razak).

“He gives money to people freely, and now the people expect us to give money to them freely. But we don’t have the money,” Mahathir said to reporters after visiting an art exhibition in Serdang today.

He claimed this is because they “have not stolen money the way Najib has”.

The current government is short of money, he said, because a lot of it is going towards servicing the loans taken on by the previous BN administration.

He also responded to Najib’s claim that the GST refunds had not gone missing during BN’s administration.

“That is what Najib says, and there is what (Finance Minister) Lim Guan Eng (photo) says.

“If it is not missing, then show us where the money is,” Mahathir said.

Lim had previously revealed that a Customs Department audit had found a shortfall in GST refunds amounting to nearly RM18 billion.

He further alleged that the amount had been “misused” by the previous government to cover up a deficit, finance development projects and “to do as they wished”.

However, he declined to link the misuse to Najib, but instead said that former Treasury secretary-general Irwan Serigar Abdullah would have been “in the know”.

Irwan denied the allegation and filed a report with the MACC on Friday.

Najib, who was also the former finance minister, had previously explained that all GST collections are paid directly into the government's consolidated revenue account, like any other tax or revenue collection.

He said from there, the funds are then paid into the GST refunds trust account on a monthly basis to meet the refund payments required in an on-going basis.