The federal government has guaranteed hundreds of billions of ringgit in loans by government-owned companies and statutory bodies to finance infrastructure, development projects, and other obligations.

However, these loans do not appear in the annual budget, even though the federal government could ultimately be on the hook if the companies borrowing them could not pay up.

In such situations, they are classified as "guarantee commitments", which the federal government says it must allocate funds to repay.

In 2025, the accountant-general reported that the national administration's financial commitments had risen to RM300.95 billion, largely driven by loans taken by DanaInfra Sdn Bhd and Malaysia Rail Link (MRL) to meet additional financing requirements for infrastructure projects.