The government is committed to replenish the National Trust Fund (KWAN) when the Covid-19 crisis ends and its finances have recovered, said Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
KWAN is an estimated RM16 billion savings fund collected from the harvesting of the country’s natural resources. Based on the National Trust Fund Act 1988, KWAN is derived from consolidated funds and Petroliam Nasional Bhd.
The funds can be utilised to finance development projects and given as a soft loan to the federal or state governments.
Tengku Zafrul said the use of the funds in the form of grants was important to ensure the fiscal deficit remained below the 6.0 per cent target by the end of 2021.
“Be confident that the government always strives to do the best for the people. KWAN is regulated by five members of the board of trustees who make all policy decisions before submitting them to the government.
“Therefore, the check and balance element remains secure despite specific and limited amendments to the use of KWAN,” he said in the 51th National Inter-Agency Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit (Laksana) report today.
Tengku Zafrul said many countries including developing ones were using funds from their reserves or trust to address the Covid-19 crisis.
He said countries like Ireland had used US$ 1.8 billion (RM7.39 billion) from its National Surplus (Exceptional Contingencies) Reserve Fund, while Norway used US$37 billion (RM152 billion) from its Government Pension Fund Global.
“In fact, our neighboring country, Singapore, also uses internal reserves worth almost US$40 billion (RM164 billion).
“In comparison, the use of KWAN by Malaysia is only about US$1.2 billion (RM5 billion),” he added.
Tengku Zafrul said the fund’s use was only limited to procuring vaccines and no other purposes except those stipulated under the law.
He said the estimated RM5 billion for vaccine procurement only used the total return on investment generated by KWAN, with the balance of RM10.4 billion still remained and was not used.
“Vaccination is the key to economic recovery and there is no better way to protect the people except by ensuring group immunisation through vaccination.
“KWAN’s objective was to protect future generations. At a time when facing the challenge of Covid-19 which is probably the most serious crisis in the history of Malaysia, who else is the future generation if it is not us?” he asked. – NST ONLINE
