GEORGE TOWN: Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Ahmad Fuzi Abdul Razak has asked all elected representatives in the state to come up with suggestions on how to increase the state's revenues.
He said the state's annual deficit budget could not forever be supported by its reserve if there was no increase in revenues.
"The state government needs to take proactive steps to reduce the deficit besides doubling efforts to increase revenue resources.
"With commitment from everyone, I believe the state's fiscal performance is expected to increase in the near future," he said when opening the first meeting of the second term of the 15th state legislative assembly sitting here today.
Present was Ahmad Fuzi's wife Toh Puan Khadijah Mohd Nor.
Also present were Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and state legislative assembly speaker Datuk Law Choo Kiang.
According to Ahmad Fuzi, Penang is one of the states that always show fairly good financial performance compared to the other states.
This, he said, was because the state's actual deficit expenditure was still able to be supported by the accumulated balance of the State Consolidated Revenue Account, thus recording a positive financial performance at the end of the year.
"In addition, Penang is the state with the second lowest accumulated loan to the federal government at RM36.73 million as of Jan 31, this year.
"The Penang government consistently maintains very good performance from a financial management perspective.
"Thus, the state government has received the 'Certificate of the Auditor General With Opinion Without Criticism With Paragraph On Other Matters' for the State Financial Statements for the Year 2022 on Au 28, 2023.
Last November, Penang tabled its 2024 Budget, which projected a higher deficit of RM514.53 million compared to RM467.12 million last year.