CM now claims Perda sold land cheap, wants cuppa with chairman

GEORGE TOWN: In a tit-for-tat move, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (pic) is claiming that the Penang Regional Development Authority has sold 3.461ha of land for 8.6% of its market value and has again invited Perda chairman Datuk Shabudin Yahaya for “a cup of coffee” to explain the matter.

Tasek Gelugor Umno MP Shabudin was the one who had first claimed in Parliament that Lim had bought his bungalow below market value.

Shabudin had snubbed Lim’s invitation for a cup of coffee then.

Denying that he was deflecting attention from investigations into his bungalow purchase, Lim claimed Perda had sold the plot in south Seberang Prai for RM1.427mil when its market value was RM16.636mil according to the valuation for its stamp duty.

He told a press conference in Komtar yesterday that Land Office records showed that the deal for the land, which was divided into 18 lots, was done on July 28, 2015.

Lim said valuation of the land was done to determine the stamp duty to be paid to the Inland Revenue Board, adding that the plot was sold to a private developer.

“We are not diverting (from the bungalow issue). We have been responding to the allegations tho­roughly. This is a different issue related to public money,” he said, adding that information on the land deal was obtained with the help of state executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin.

Lim, who shared documents of the deal with reporters at the press conference, invited Shabudin to meet in the Mutiara Room on Level 52 in Komtar at 11am on Sunday to speak on the matter.

“I invite him again to have coffee with me to discuss this deal,” he said.

Contacted yesterday over Lim’s claims over the Perda land deal, Shabudin said he would issue a statement today.

Perda is an agency under the Implementation Coordination Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department.

Its main functions are to bring socio-economic development and develop residential, agricultural, industrial and commercial facilities in Penang.