Terengganu's oil wells will dry up by 2012 and Malaysia will become an oil importer by 2014.

5 May 2008: Cover Story: The wang ehsan money trail Stories

by Sharon Tan, Ghani Hamat and Siow Chen Ming

The statistics speak volumes of the discord between Terengganu's government expenditure and the socio-economic status of the people in the state. Terengganu would easily qualify as the state with the biggest budget in peninsular Malaysia. Thanks to its natural resources, it gets more than RM1 billion each year from the federal government in oil royalties that give the state enough firepower to undertake fairly large projects on its own.

For instance, in the 2008 Budget, the budget was RM1.67 billion, of which RM1.5 billion was non-revenue income (penerimaan bukan hasil), which mainly constitutes the state's share of oil royalties from the federal government. To give an idea of how large the budget is — in comparison, Selangor's budget is only RM1.3 billion. And Selangor's population is nearly five times more than Terengganu, which has slightly more than a million people. The Sultan is the present Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

While Selangor can claim to be the most developed state in the country, Terengganu comes nowhere close. In fact, the state has one of the highest poverty levels in the country. According to past budget speeches, in 2004 Terengganu's poverty rate was 10.6% — far higher than the national average of 5.1%. More..

"Malaysia jadi pengimport minyak menjelang 2014" Mahathir

Oleh Bernama
Isnin, 12 Mei 2008

JAKARTA: Malaysia mungkin tidak lagi mampu memberi subsidi harga minyak apabila ia menjadi pengimport bersih bahan itu menjelang 2014, kata mantan perdana menteri, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Beliau berkata, dalam keadaan sekarang Malaysia lebih bernasib baik daripada Indonesia kerana penduduk Malaysia 10 kali lebih kecil, oleh itu penggunaan minyak lebih kecil berbanding Indonesia.

Indonesia terpaksa mengimport minyak kerana penggunaan dalam negeri sudah melebihi pengeluaran, kata Dr Mahathir yang juga Penasihat Petronas.

'Walaupun pengeluaran minyak Malaysia lebih kecil daripada pengeluaran oleh Indonesia pi kita dapat mengeksport 250,000 tong sehari dan bila harganya meningkat seperti sekarang kerajaan masih boleh memberi subsidi,' kata beliau kepada pemberita di sini, kelmarin selepas berucap di majlis Konvokesyen Universiti Pancasila.

Ditanya pandangannya mengenai kenaikan harga minyak dunia sekarang, beliau berkata apabila penggunaan minyak dalam negeri sudah melebihi pengeluaran, timbul masalah untuk memberi subsidi harga.

Katanya, alternatif perlu dicari termasuk menggunakan aset dan kemampuan yang ada seperti tenaga manusia yang banyak di Indonesia sehingga menghasilkan pendapatan lebih baik serta mengurangkan penggunaan barangan import.

Beliau berkata kenaikan harga barang dan minyak disebabkan faktor dalaman dan luaran yang di luar kawalan.

Dr Mahathir berkata, pada masa sama, permintaan terhadap minyak meningkat begitu besar berikutan kemajuan pesat di China, India dan negara Asia lain, sedangkan pengeluarannya terhad.