2018 public money the highest in four years – Audit Report
KUALA LUMPUR: The public money has increased by 25.4 per cent or RM10.726 billion to RM52.910 billion at end-2018, compared with RM42.184 billion in 2017, according to the Auditor-General’s Report 2018: The Federal Government’s Financial Statements.
The report, released yesterday, said the amount of public money comprising cash and investment at the end of 2018 was the highest in four years.
“Cash, comprising savings in the bank, cash-in-transit and cash on hand had recorded RM22.213 billion, RM1.432 billion and RM2.87 million respectively in 2018.
“As for investment book value, it had increased by RM5.142 billion or 21.3 per cent to RM29.262 billion in 2018 compared with RM24.120 billion in 2017,” said the report.
It said in terms of Consolidated Revenue Account, the federal government revenue was at RM232.883 billion while operating expenditure amounted to RM230.960 billion.
“The federal government recorded a surplus revenue of RM1.922 billion and all of the surplus revenues for the current year has been transferred to the Development Fund.
“The cumulative balance of the Consolidated Revenue Account remained at RM11.863 billion since 1996,” it said.
The report said the federal government revenue stood at RM232.883 billion, comprising tax revenue, non-tax revenue, non-revenue receipts and Federal Territories revenue.
“The amount increased by RM12.476 billion or 5.7 per cent compared with 2017 which amounted to RM220.406 billion.
“The main source of the government’s revenue is tax revenue, whereby in 2018, tax revenue showed a decrease of RM3.598 billion or 2.0 per cent compared with 2017, due to the implementation of zero-rated (0 per cent) Goods and Services Tax (GST) from June 2018 to August 2018 as well as the abolishment of GST that took effect on September 2018,” it said.
Meanwhile, operating expenditure in 2018 stood at RM230.960 billion or 99.4 per cent, against RM217.695 billion in 2017.
It said among the highest expenditures was receipts and fixed payable charges amounted to RM114.144 billion or 49.4 per cent and emoluments which stood at RM79.989 billion or 34.6 per cent while the lowest expenditure was the procurement of assets at RM0.447 billion or 0.2 per cent.
Based on the report, the Consolidated Loan Account cumulative balance totalled RM15.224 billion and the amount was reduced by RM18.258 billion or 54.5 per cent compared with 2017 which stood at RM33.482 billion.
Meanwhile, the balance of Consolidated Trust Account increased to RM25.823 billion against the negative balance of RM3.161 billion at end-2017 due to the increase in the balance of the Government Trust Fund to RM3.725 billion at end-2018 from negative RM23.541 billion a year before.
“This happened when the government decided to transfer RM72.365 billion from the Consolidated Loan Account to the Development Fund, one of the accounts under the Government Trust Fund, compared with only RM27.232 billion in 2017,” it said.
The report also revealed that the federal debt had increased by RM54.212 billion or 7.9 per cent to RM741.049 billion in 2018, compared with RM686.837 billion in the year before.
“The increase is because, in 2018, the government had taken a new loan amounting to RM131.599 billion, comprising RM69.111 billion (52.5 per cent) that was taken by the previous administration while RM62.488 billion (47.5 per cent) was taken by the administration of the day.
“A total of RM77.492 billion (58.9 per cent) of the RM131.599 billion was used to repay the loan that was due,” it said.
As for the federal debt, it comprised domestic debt amounting to RM719.545 billion or 97.1 per cent and foreign debt at RM21.504 billion or 2.9 per cent.
The report said the government had reported its financial commitment stood at RM242.969 billion in 2018, an increase by RM28.699 billion or 13.4 per cent against RM214.269 billion in 2017.- Bernama