This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 24, 2025 - March 30, 2025

Last week, Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager Captain Subramaniam Karuppiah was reported as saying that RM3.2 billion out of the RM3.8 billion federal loan extended to the port authority for the development of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) in Selangor 12 years ago remains outstanding.

While the PKFZ scandal is slowly fading from memory, the fact remains that taxpayers were left to shoulder billions of ringgit in debt and that the country is still paying it off.

In fact, taxpayers will have to continue to suffer the consequences of the PKFZ scandal until at least 2047, when the loan term ends.

In a September 2024 interview with The Edge, Subramaniam pointed out that the loan repayments were one of PKA’s biggest expenditures, leading to occasional losses for the port authority. PKA’s 2022 annual report shows that it was loss-making in 2021 and 2022. It reported a bigger net loss of RM247 million in 2022, from RM68.54 million in the previous year.

Rather than putting aside chunks of money to service the federal loan, the money PKA earns from port activities and lease payments from Westports and Northport could be better spent maintaining the two terminals, especially to deepen and maintain channels for ships to dock, as well as initiatives such as upgrading the infrastructure, digitalisation and automation to enhance Port Klang’s standing as a major maritime hub in Asia.

At the same time, the country is saddled with billions of ringgit in debt from the embezzlement of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) funds. Let’s hope the costly lessons learnt from these two controversies will help us avoid making the same mistakes again.

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