Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s proposed hike in property assessment rates has caused much protest and resentment as city dwellers not only find the steep hike totally shocking and unacceptable, they also find no justified ground for any increase.
Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan has so far given two grounds for the proposed hike, firstly, the assessment rate has remained unchanged for 21 years and that annual values of properties have increased.
But he has not been able to answer one basic and important question- if City Hall has been able to function without imposing new rate for the past 21 years, why does it have to do it now, especially at a time when implementation of the federal government’s so called subsidy rationalization plans, the implementation of GST and the likely increase in electricity tariffs next year are going to make life more difficult for Malaysians?
What more, when the hikes are so steep that the only suitable word to describe it is “ridiculous”!
I am glad that Kuala Lumpur’s third mayor Tan Sri Elyas Omar has today come out to urge City Hall to spend the lots of money it has wisely and that during his tenure as mayor, he did not increase assessment rates so as not to burden the public.
He was quoted by The Malay Mail Online to say:-
“City Hall has bigger revenue compared to what it had 30 years ago. So, why must City Hall increase the assessment? There is no need to increase it even by 10 percent”
He also said that he ventured into projects with private developers to generate income for City Hall.
Tan Sri Eylas has said three important points which Tengku Adnan and City Hall mayor should take note of:-
- It is not right to burden the people
- That City Hall now has bigger revenue and there is no need to increase assessment rate by even 10 %.
- City Hall can raise its income by many ways.
If need be, Tengku Adnan and City Hall should pay a visit to Tan Sri Eylas and seek his advice on how to administer City Hall without having to impose new assessment rate.
I am sure Tan Sri Eylas will be most happy to offer his advice.
There have been allegations that City Hall’s move to impose steep increase in assessment rate is politically motivated and meant to punish the city voters who had overwhelmingly supported Pakatan Rakyat in the May 5 general election.
Tengku Adnan can deny it but such conclusion is certainly unavoidable if City Hall goes ahead with the proposed hike which is totally unjustifiable and unacceptable.