THE Malaysia Rubber Board (MRB) land allegedly sold at a loss to another government agency – which then resold it to an Employees Provident Fund (EPF) subsidiary – is now the Kwasa Damansara township development that has enabled the fund to provide good returns to contributors, Najib Razak said.
The former prime minister was responding to Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok’s revelation today that MRB had been shortchanged RM800 million when it sold 1,133ha of its land in Sungai Buloh to Aset Tanah Negara Bhd (ATNB) in 2010 for RM1.5 billion.
ATNB then sold it to Kwasa Land in 2012 for RM2.28 billion.
“The sale to Kwasa Land was at RM18.70 per square feet, a price that analysts at the time said was appropriate and in line with the market,” Najib said on Facebook hours after Kok’s press conference earlier today.
He said the township was now home to some 150,000 residents and had a development value of about RM50 billion.
The development had also been part of the Barisan Nasional government’s plan for strategic growth around Kuala Lumpur under the 10th Malaysia Plan, he added.
“Teresa Kok is faulting BN for forcing the sale of government land to the government for opportunities for EPF to obtain profits to be shared with its contributors.
“How vile that the BN government was trying to take care of its cronies, that is, the EPF contributors.
“Has Teresa Kok no other work to do, such as caring for the welfare of rubber tappers or raising the price of palm oil?”
Kok earlier today said the MRB had reported the sale of the land to the Auditor-General and asked for further investigations.
MRB chairman Sankara Nair said ATNB was a dubious, little-known agency and had asked the Auditor-General for further details.
The ministry and MRB also planned to report the sale to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Kok today announced the ministry’s moratorium on development for all land under MRB’s land bank –including projects already approved – and urged the agency to return to its original mandate to conduct rubber research. – January 3, 2019.
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