Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: The Finance Ministry expects the amount of loans to be disbursed this year, especially for local businesses, to be maintained.

Deputy Minister of Finance Datuk Kong Cho Ha said today he did not see a decrease in the loan disbursements by local banks, especially after the government's guarantee for funds under the RM60 billion stimulus budget.

He told the Dewan Rakyat the accumulated loans disbursed by local banks to local businesses and individuals from 2005 to 2008 showed an annual average increase of 9% per year.

Local banks disbursed RM726.5 billion last year, of which 40.7% or RM295.7 billion were to local businesses and the balance of 53.4% or RM387 billion to individuals. The balance of 5.9% or RM42.9 billion was for other sectors, Kong said.

"The total banking approval rate was 60.8% in 2008," he told the Dewan Rakyat when replying to Ahmad Kassim (Kuala Kedah-PKR) during the question and answer session today.

Ahmad had asked the finance ministry to provide the amount and the percentage of loans which local banks had disbursed to companies and individuals from 2005 to 2008.

According to Kong (Lumut-BN), local banks disbursed RM644.2 billion in 2007, of which 40.6% or RM261.2 billion were to local businesses, 55.2% or RM355.5 billion to individuals and the remaining 4.3% or RM27.5 billion to other sectors.

He added the total amount disbursed in 2006 and 2005 were RM593 billion and RM558.1 billion respectively.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in a written reply that Petroliam Nasional Bhd posted revenue of RM233.1 billion and profit before tax of RM95.5 billion for the year ended March 31, 2008 when the average price of crude oil for the period was US$82 (RM303.40) per barrel.

He said since Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas's) financial year would end on March 31, 2009, he was unable to state the impact of the fall in oil price on  Petronas' revenue.

On the nation's revenue for 2009, Najib said it would not be severely affected by the fall in oil prices as the tax on petroleum income was still based on the preceding year and not on the current year.

"The average price of oil till December 2008 is US$104 per barrel as compared to the earlier estimate of US$125 per barrel for 2008," he said when replying to Teresa Kok (Seputeh-DAP) who had asked the finance minister last Monday to state the decline in government revenue following the fall in global crude oil prices.

Light crude oil price was trading around US$48 today.

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