The prime minister said he had been attacked on social media, with people accusing him of “not giving the right answers”.

“They say the debt keeps increasing, but they don’t see the real reason why.

“Every year, the government borrows money (to finance) infrastructure (development) and settle its previous debts,” he said at the opening ceremony of the National Tax Conference here.

Last week, Anwar said the federal government’s debt increased by RM50 billion to RM1.22 trillion as of the end of April this year, compared with RM1.17 trillion at the end of last year.

Citing the RM48 billion debt incurred by sovereign wealth fund 1MDB as an example, he said today that the money borrowed to settle previous debts constitutes the biggest burden on the government.

“Imagine if we could spend that on infrastructure – schools, clinics and so on.

“But I can’t ignore it and say I don’t want to pay the 1MDB debt, as happened in the previous administration. It doesn’t work that way,” he said.

Anwar added that the government had reduced much of what it borrowed.

“In 2021 and 2022, the government borrowed RM100 billion. When I came to power, we reduced (the money borrowed) to RM93 billion. This year, it’s RM86 billion.

“This reduction is the result of the government’s efforts to decrease the deficit from 5.6% in 2022 to 5% in 2023 and 4.3% in 2024.

“The medium-term goal now is to reduce the national debt from 64% of the national GDP to 60%.”