UMNO Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has been told by Damansara MP and DAP publicity secretary Tony Pua to figure out the difference between land value and total development value before speaking on the matter.

Last Tuesday, Asyraf had questioned Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng decision not to sell all assets belonging to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) in a bid to settle its huge debt problem.

The Umno Youth chief had claimed the land value of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) location, Kuala Lumpur’s new financial district developed by the sovereign wealth fund, was now worth RM40 billion.

“This is the quality of present Umno leaders, who do not understand mathematics and economics as well as financial terms. They misuse figures and terms to deceive and mislead the people,” Pua said in a statement today.

The RM40 billion value associated with the TRX project is referred to as its gross development value (GDV), or total development value.

“GDV is a figure that covers all costs required to develop a project. This is very different from the value of assets or the profits that can be derived from the project,” Pua said.

According to the latest assessment by C.H. Williams Talhar & Wong on July 29, 2015, TRX’s land assets was worth only RM2.8 billion, he added.

That amount, Pua said, was before an RM800 million loan related to the project was undertaken.

It also did not take into account the RM2.8 billion in grants provided by the government to save the TRX project, which was nearly abandoned under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

Therefore, any sale of TRX land assets would not resolve 1MDB’s RM50 billion debt, a result of mismanagement and abuse of power by Umno and BN, Pua said.

Asyraf’s calculation also did not take into consideration that TRX land assets were sold to 1MDB by the government at a modest price of RM230 million, or just RM75 per sq ft.

“This means, the TRX asset is a government-provided asset to 1MDB, rather than a profit derived by 1MDB through its own efforts.”

Therefore, if the TRX land asset were to be sold for RM40 billion, as demanded by Asyraf, it would constitute a sale of land owned by the government and Malaysians would still have to pay off 1MDB debt, Pua said. – Bernama, November 15, 2019.