By Yasmin Ramlan
SHAH ALAM, Sept 21 — The Federal government has allocated RM3 billion for flood mitigation projects in Selangor which can be utilised immediately, Deputy Finance Minister II Steven Sim Chee Keong revealed.
The figure is part of the RM11 billion allocation for the entire country to resolve issues related to the disaster.
He said this in response to a request from Selangor Mentri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari for additional federal funding to mitigate flooding in the state.
“I have said (the government has allocated) RM11 billion. There’s no need to wait until 2024 (budget announcement).
“And out of the RM11 billion, RM3 billion is for Selangor,” he said during a dialogue session in conjunction with the Selangor state-level Budget 2024 Roadshow at the state administration building, here, today.
Sim also responded to several other concerns raised by Amirudin in his speech earlier pertaining to the state government allocation under Budget 2024.
Among other things, the Menteri Besar had requested Putrajaya to increase the allocation for Selangor under the Malaysian Road Records Information System (Marris), which he noted is currently capped at 10 per cent.
He said this is to allow the state to better maintain federal roads located within Selangor.
In response, Sim said existing Finance Ministry guidelines already allow the allocation to be increased to up to 20 per cent.
Stressing the importance of improving public infrastructure such as federal roads, Sim also expressed hope that the federal government could increase the overall Marris allocation under Budget 2024.
“This year, the government has allocated RM1 billion (for federal roads). Even though the amount doesn’t seem like a lot for the whole nation, it’s a big amount compared to previous years, which is only RM600 million. We’ve almost doubled the amount.
“I hope there will be (further) improvements for the allocation (next year),” he said.
