THE Penang government is raising the assessment rate with effect from next year.
The hike of between 0.5 per cent and 4.45 per cent announced on Monday has received brickbats from several quarters.
Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) vice-president Datuk Huan Cheng Guan lambasted the state government for the untimely assessment hike amid rising cost of living.
Huan did not mince words in hitting out at the state administration and labeling it a total failure.
“The state government has been good at adding to the financial burden of ratepayers by raising water tariff and hawkers’ rental fees in Seberang Prai.
“I thought the government had engaged people from different professions in the administration to look after the people’s interest. I was wrong,” Huan told Streets.
He said the electorate had paid a heavy price for a change of state administration in 2008.
Huan also said the hike would especially affect the low-income group.
“The administration has done very little to alleviate the people’s burden since 2008, except for selling plots of land away to developers for luxury housing projects,” Huan said.
Former state PAS commissioner Datuk Salleh Man said the assessment hike, although minimal, would burden Penangites.
“The increment of 4.45 per cent on commercial zones, which will affect business operations such as race horse clubs and golf resorts, is reasonable as the owners can easily afford it.
“However, people living in low-cost and low medium-cost houses will feel the pinch although the increment is a small amount of between RM10 and RM50.
“A RM50 assessment hike may seem minimal, but it will definitely affect those in the low-income group,” he said.
Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) claimed the state government’s approval of the new rates was due to loss of annual tax revenue caused by the municipal councils’ failure to collect the arrears.
CAP president S.M. Mohamed Idris said local councils’ should try to recover the outstanding assessment fees rather than adopting the easy way out by hiking the rates.
“There are many property owners who have not paid their dues. it is important for councils to collect that instead of going for the easy solution of hiking the rates,” he said.
State opposition leader Datuk Jahara Hamid said the move by the state government to boost the coffers of the Penang Island and Seberang Prai municipal councils by RM40 million by raising the assessment rates was unfair to ratepayers who had paid their dues.
Jahara also ascribed the move to the poor revenue collection system of an incompetent state administration.
She said the two local councils should map out plans to speed up the collection of arrears.
“The councils should find ways to collect the arrears from defaulters,” she said in a press statement.
Jahara said those who had paid up their dues should not be made to fork out more next year.
The Annual Auditor-General’s Report 2013 revealed that Penang Island Municipal Council had failed to recover RM54.5 million in outstanding assessment fees while Seberang Prai Municipal Council had failed to collect arrears of RM21.8 million.
State DAP chairman Chow Kon Yeow, who is also State Local Government Committee chairman, defended the hike, saying the local councils needed the money to pay for utilities, amenities and development projects.
“We need to look at the assessment hike objectively. The increment is for the local councils to defray expenses related to rising fuel and electricity costs,” he said.
Chow had said the increase was minimal compared with the last increment, carried out nine years ago, which ranged from 2.9 per cent to 6.4 per cent.
He added the slight increase was to pay for higher operating costs.
Chow refused to answer when asked if the state DAP or State Pakatan Rakyat had promised not to raise the assessment rate in its general election manifesto.
A perusal of the Penang DAP and national Pakatan Rakyat coalition manifestoes showed no mention of the non-raising of assessment rates.