Selangor water restructuring move hits wall again

Selangor's water restructuring exercise has hit the brick wall yet again, with different positions taken by the federal and state governments on the prices for Selangor to take over the four water concessionaires. 

The key reason is that the Selangor government is not agreeable to taking over the water companies based on the "willing buyer-willing seller" principle as proposed by the federal government, state executive councillor Teng Chang Khim said. 

Responding to a query during the state assembly sitting yesterday, Teng said negotiations on the restructuring exercise could not be completed until today, despite being scheduled to be completed by end of this year. 

"The federal government, in several letters to the Selangor state government, still insists that in order to realise the proposed ‘holistic model', the Selangor government should solve any issue in the takeover of the water concessionaires through a willing buyer-willing seller commercial transaction. 

"The Selangor government is of the view that the willing buyer-willing seller commercial transaction concept is against the desire and spirit of the enactment of Water Service Industry Act 2006," he said. 

Water not a 'weapon' for private companies

Teng said the spirit of the Act was that the water service should be managed by the government and should not be used as a weapon by private companies to threaten the government and oppress the people by way of raising tariffs. 

"The Act does not absolutely provide for the negotiations between the federal government, state government and concessionaires to be based on the ‘willing buyer-willing seller' method," he added. 

Teng said the state government had made offers four times to each of the four water concessionaires - Syabas, ABASS, SPLASH and Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd - on the takeover, with the latest price offered on Feb 20 this year being RM9.516 billion for all four companies. 

He reiterated that the concessionaires could take this matter to an international tribunal if they were not happy with the prices offered.

"The tribunal will not on decide a price that is lower than the price offered by the Selangor state government. 

"Once it is referred to the tribunal, the Selangor government will adhere to whatever price and orders made by the tribunal," added Teng, who is the assemblyperson for Sungai Pinang.