MPs might lead rally against assessment rate hike

Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers in Kuala Lumpur said they may mobilise city folk riled by Kuala Lumpur City Hall's decision to increase assessment rates.

Batu MP Tian Chua (pic) said his colleagues have yet to come up with details of the protest, including whether to take it to the streets or confine it indoors.

“Residents have been urging us to take some form of action. Many are angry and they want a protest," said Tian Chua, adding that it would likely be before December 17, the deadline for house owners to submit objection letters on the proposed hike.

The MPs have urged residents to continue sending their letters to City Hall, but are pessimistic that their appeals would be heard before January 1, when the new rates take effect.

They also urged City Hall to withhold the planned hike for six months to enable appeals to be heard.

Tian Chua hoped that the two Barisan Nasional Mps in the capital – Titiwangsa MP Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani and Setiawangsa MP Datuk Ahmad Fauzi Zahari – will join them.

Saying they were not against any revision of the assessment rate as it had not been increased for 21 years, Tian Chua, however, said any hike should be gradual.

"People expected increases of between 10% and 15% but not such a drastic hike.”

He was also not convinced that City Hall needed the extra revenue for upgrading purposes and infrastructure work.

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor had said that City Hall hoped to raise an extra RM400 million a year in revenue from the higher assessment rates as it needed money to upgrade roads, markets and other infrastructure. Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng accused City Hall of being insincere, while Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw said KL lawmakers had until today been kept in the dark on the proposed discount as promised by Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor. "We don't know how much," Tan said.

Tengku Adnan also did not discount the possibility that there may be a reduction in the current 6% rate assessment rate for house owners.