PUTRAJAYA – The Wang Amanah Negara (KWAN) or National Trust Fund can be used after its inception reaches 10 years.
KWAN was established to ensure the optimum usage on the income from the stable natural resources of the country, for the interest of the country and the future generation.
Under Section 6 of Act 339, the KWAN fund can be utilised after the 10 years period ends from the date of the inception of the act (1988), to pay for development projects under the First Schedule of the Development Funds Act 1966 (Act 406) and soft loan to the Federal Government or state government.
“At 31 December 2020, KWAN fund totalled at RM19.5 billion encompasses of Petronas contribution RM10.4 billion and accumulated return on investment amounting to RM9.1 billion,” he said in a special news conference at his ministry today.
He added, the amendment on the National Trust Fund Act 1988 (Act 339) through the Emergency Ordinance enables the KWAN fund to be used for the procurement of vaccine and any vaccine related expenditure for infectious diseases only.
“The usage is limited to the procurement of vaccine and not for anything else not stated under the law.
“An estimation of RM5 billion for the procurement of vaccine would only utilises the sum from the return on investment. However, the RM10.4 billion contributed would an untouched,” he said.
According to Tengku Zafrul, the current crisis is not merely an economic crisis as what happened in 1998 and 2008. On the contrary, it is a health and economic crisis, which run concurrently.
Vaccination is the main key for the recovery of economy, in line with the establishment objectives of KWAN, to protect the future generation. There is no better way to protect the people other than ensuring herd immunisation through vaccination.
Earlier, former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak questioned the government for using KWAN after making loans amounting to RM85 billion and selling several national assets.
Najib also questioned how the government allocated RM3 billion in its 2021 Budget approved for the purchase of vaccine. –MalaysiaGazette
