FT MIC denies selling off building

Federal Territories (FT) MIC has denied it will be selling one of its buildings, as claimed by a recent media report.

Instead, the division’s liaison office secretary S Rajah said the party had received numerous purchase offers for the building in question, and that a decision to sell was still being discussed.

“I deny the report. It is one-sided and confusing.

“For your information, FT MIC received many offers to purchase the building. So I brought the matter up to the state exco meeting where many members supported selling off the building in favour of purchasing a new one in a more strategic location,” he told Malaysiakini.

Rajah was referring to a report by a local Tamil daily which claimed that the MIC-owned building at Kompleks Damai in Kuala Lumpur would be sold off.

The four-storey building was purchased in 1978 for use by the party’s FT liaison office.

Rajah also said that in any case, there was nothing wrong should MIC decide to sell the building.

S Rajah

“The suggestion to sell the building has not been finalised. It is still under discussion. There are certain quarters who wish to purchase the building at a high price and the proposal was well received by the state exco. That is it,” he explained.

He said: “If we sell the building and buy a more strategic building that can yield a higher rental for the party, why not?”

Elaborating further, Rajah stated that the MIC headquarters would be taking over the management of all party-owned buildings in the country as of June 1.

“All debts, maintenance and other matters will be managed by the national-level MIC. So the question of the building being sold off by me or others will no longer arise.”

In its report, the daily claimed that the building had an outstanding quit rent of RM70,000 and unpaid electricity bills of up to RM50,000.

When questioned, Rajah admitted there were outstanding payments, but not as exorbitant as reported by the daily.

“We have outstanding assessment tax payments,” he said, adding the party had met with the authorities and promised to settle all outstanding payments. - Mkini