The rise in cost of living in the last 10 years, is one that has hit the nation, and is no worse in Selangor than in other parts of Malaysia. There numerous Federal Government policies that have led to this, and it is highly irresponsible to blame the cost of living increases on property taxes in Selangor, as an academician [1] put it yesterday.
In fact, Selangor on the other hand has been actively introducing policies to help her citizens cope with the rising cost of living, from subsized day care, free tuition, free medical card, monthly food provisions and others.
Sadly, the said academician failed to point out what property related taxes increase, when the cukai pintu in Selangor has remained the same in the last 10 years, unlike in Kuala Lumpur where it was increase 200-300% [2] a couple of years ago. Cukai tanah in Selangor was only raised this year, on average 10% after a decade of maintaining the same rates.
The net increase is hardly noticeable as compared to increases in petrol prices and GST, to name a few Federal tax burdens. In fact, Selangor has waived the property taxes on low cost flats and houses in villages in the last 2 years, making such claims that an increase in property taxes a hilarious argument.
The claim that pasar malam rental rates have gone up is also rubbish, where in many cases, pasar malam rates have been lowered to a standard RM4/day of trading. RM4/lot covers basic maintenance cost by the local council such as cleaning works, and forms a fraction of the revenue or cost by each respective trader. Many steps have also been taken to eliminate “rent seeking” when it comes to pasar malam and pasar Ramadan lots, where genuine traders can access licenses directly from the local council, and not have to rent them from 3rd parties at cost way higher than RM4/day.
Sadly, much more can and should be done to reduce cost of living by the Federal Government. If Selangor government is at fault, then cost of living would naturally be lower in Kuala Lumpur than Petaling Jaya, but this is not the case.