BELIEVE HIM AT YOUR PERIL: Khalid vows water tariff hikes to be 'reasonable'

Outgoing Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim has given an assurance that water tariffs in the Klang Valley will be increased ‘reasonably’.

The water tariff hikes, if any, will be made under the supervision of the Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (Span) as well as with the agreement of the state government, Khalid pledged in a statement today.

“With the water takeover, we will avoid water tariff hikes as high as 82 percent, which was supposed to occur between 2009 and 2015 as enshrined in the concession agreement,” he said.

The Selangor government and the federal government last week signed the master agreement to finalise the restructuring of the state's water supply industry.

Meanwhile, Khalid said the state government will prioritise in reducing non-revenue water, increasing effectiveness of the water asset and combatting the issue of treated water shortage until the construction of the Langat 2 water treatment plant is completed.

The state government will also continue strengthening the raw water supply programme under the Hybrid Off River Augmentation System (Horas) 600 and 300 project.

Although the takeover of Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sdn Bhd (Splash) will be done separately, he stressed that it will not disturb the state government’s plans in taking over the state’s water industry through a new entity, which is Air Selangor Sdn Bhd.

“One of the important terms in the master agreement is that the state government will inject assets worth RM14.92 billion into Air Selangor while the federal government will allocate additional funds of RM2 billion to enable the state government to take over the four water concessionaires,” he said.

Khalid added that the transfer of water assets to the Perbadanan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB) will be made through leasehold for 45 years which includes all liabilities such as the water debts and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas), Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB) and Konsortium Abass Sdn Bhd (Abass)’s bonds worth RM6.1 billion as well as the water assets belonging to the concessionaires.

“Facilities and services licenses will be issued by Span to Air Selangor.

“When Langat 2 is completed, it will be leased to Air Selangor for it to be operated by the company,” he said.

Khalid then promised that the master agreement will be revealed to the public, subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Enactment and the federal government’s cooperation. -M'kini