Umno information chief Annuar Musa has outlined the difference between Bank Negara's foreign exchange (forex) losses and 1MDB.

He pointed out that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating the forex losses had concluded that the sum involved was more than RM30 billion.

“The RM30 billion is... something the country can never redeem. It is not losses on paper, but something we have lost forever.

“This is not like the 1MDB issue, where the losses are on paper.

“But 1MDB's business is still operational, it is able to make a profit and capable of carrying out a rationalisation exercise to overcome losses incurred,” Annuar is quoted as saying by Umno Online.

The Ketereh MP said the opposition gives the impression that 1MDB's debt cannot be settled and that the people must shoulder the burden.

“This information is incorrect. The losses are only on paper. From a business perspective, 1MDB has not folded completely and is still doing business,” he added.

On the other hand, Annuar described the forex losses as a world record-breaking incident.

“The losses set a world record. No other country has experienced such a colossal losses, amounting to almost half of its reserves,” he added.

The forex losses occurred during Dr Mahathir Mohamad's tenure as prime minister and when jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim helmed the finance portfolio.

Mahathir and the opposition have claimed that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's administration is attempting to exact political revenge against Mahathir and deflect attention from the 1MDB scandal by dredging up old issues.

Both Mahathir and the opposition have repeatedly called for an RCI on 1MDB.

The six-member RCI on forex is tasked with, among others, determining if there were attempts to mislead Parliament and the cabinet on the forex losses.

During its first hearing on Monday, the RCI concluded that the actual losses amounted to RM31.5 billion and this was not in Bank Negara's reports.

Following this, RCI chairperson Mohd Sidek Hassan said the commission must determine who wanted the figures concealed.