(Sarawak, Monday): The Sarawak State Assemblyman for Kidurong Chiew Chin Sing said that the three day grace period for settling the over parking charges in Bintulu is certainly too short and should be extended to 2 weeks.

This three days grace period is especially much too short for those traveling between the major towns in Sarawak and even those who live and work a distance away from the town centres, as they could hardly find enough time to pay the over parking charges, and before they know it, the three days grace period would be up, and they are faced with paying the ten ringgit compound fee.

Chiew was holding a press conference together with a complainant, Fong Pau Teck from Miri. Fong had complained that he had encountered problems when he was paying his over-parking charges and compound fee at the BDA town office counter at Jalan Sultan Iskandar.

Fong said that the three days grace period for settling the over parking charges is just too short. He also asked as to  why is the authority here levying a compound fee of ten ringgit, after the three days grace period, when in fact the other day in Sibu, when he was paying for his over-parking fee there on June 26 2006, he was not  given any summons at all.

Fong also said that upon paying the compound in protest eventually at the BDA counter , he was not even given a receipt spelling out exactly what he had paid for. The over-parking charges were RM 6.41 while the compound fee was RM 10.00 but the print out end of the over parking ticket only printed  **16.41. And when he demanded for an official receipt he was told by an officer that if he was not happy he could ask his lawyer to write a letter to them.

Chiew said that an official receipt should be issued when collecting public money , saying exactly what the payments are for, so that their could be proper accounting so as  to avoid confusion among the public as this could lead to improper handling of the money collected.

This is just not right and something must be done to rectify the matter, Chiew said.

Chiew also called on the government to standardize the coupon parking system throughout all towns in Sarawak so that we don’ t have one type of coupon  for Kuching, another one for Sibu, then another for Bintulu and  yet a  different type for Miri.

The different towns all have their different coupon design, conditions and regulations today and drivers are finding it hard to remember when, where, what and which apply after a hard day’s driving into the town on the bumpy Pan Borneo Highway.

A standardized coupon parking system will create conveniences especially for those cross-division drivers. Currently travelers have to buy different coupons when they travel to the major divisional towns.

(09/10/2006)