Lim Guan Eng has refuted former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak’s claim that Penang’s financial performance over the last 10 years during his tenure as chief minister was due to the sale of government land.

Lim, the finance minister, said the Pakatan Harapan-led Penang government sold only 42.90ha of land, less than the 1,481.55ha sold by the previous BN state administration.

He pointed out that despite selling less land, the state government was still able to receive more money, as the sales were conducted through open tender instead of direct negotiations as practised by BN.

“The revenue from the Harapan government’s sale of land was used for affordable housing, leaving a remaining sum of only 10.4 percent of the state’s expenditure.

"So, it is not true that the state government’s revenue and surpluses came solely from land sales,” he said in a statement today.

As Lim noted, prime reclaimed land near Gurney Drive in Penang was sold by BN at RM1 psf and only 10 percent of the reclaimed land was given to the state government.

“Under Harapan, the 10 percent reclaimed land was renegotiated and increased to 20 percent for the state government.

"Similarly, reclaimed land near Butterworth was sold by the previous BN government for only five percent of the reclaimed land to be given to the state government.

“Again, we renegotiated and increased the price of reclaimed land for Butterworth to 35 percent from five percent (previously), or seven times more, of land to be given to the state government,” he added.