GEORGE TOWN: Taxpayers were urged to “calm down” today at a dialogue on impending rate hikes with two officials in charge of property assessment in Penang Island and Seberang Perai.
The two men – Cheong Chee Hong of the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) and Mat Nasir Hassan of the Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) – had borne the brunt of objections against the plan to hike the assessment rates by the two councils.
Both are directors of their respective valuation departments.
The Penang Chinese Chambers of Commerce (PCCC) had hosted the dialogue to enable the ratepayers to raise their objections against the proposed rate hike of between 50% and 98%.
Property owners told the council directors they would be forced to pay more than double in assessment rates beginning next year.
One of them, who identified himself as Tan, said he would have to pay RM3,800 a year for his 26-year-old house, compared to RM1,400 now.
Lawyer Lee Kim Noor said she was reviving the defunct Penang Ratepayers’ Association as its pro-tem chief.
She said the increase in assessment rates was going to be a “double whammy of sorts”, as the upcoming new parcel quit rent system would be announced soon.
“The new parcel quit rent rates will be announced by the end of this month or November. We feel there will be an inevitable hike there, too.
“But let me ask you, why are we paying to the local council when they don’t take care of our apartments, such as sweeping our compounds? They do not do anything at high rises.
“Please, we Penang people are very ‘kiasu’ and ‘kiamsap’ (Hokkien for fear of losing and stingy, respectively), don’t go raising fees as you like,” she said.
Another participant at the dialogue said the owner-occupier concessions should be brought back so that owners living in their own houses could pay less.
He said those renting out their property should be levied the full assessment fees, as they were profiting out of their properties.
MBPP’s Cheong urged the ratepayers to calm down, saying that all owners have up to Oct 14 to submit their complaints in person with the council or online.
He said that “hypothetically”, if one representative of an apartment block objected to the hike and if it is approved, the entire block would enjoy the existing assessment rates.
The state government has announced that assessment fees at MBPP and MBSP would go up between 50% and 98%, due to higher spending costs of both councils.
A total of 322,549 of the properties on the island and another 327,401 in Seberang Perai will be affected.
For MBPP, the rates for 16 of the 17 categories of properties have actually gone down. But because the annual value of the properties has increased, many owners will end up paying more.
Recently, the state government had also said owners of condominium units, apartments and other stratified properties will need to pay quit rent directly to the respective district land offices. The new parcel rent system will begin next year.
Previously, property owners used to pay the quit rent to their joint management bodies (JMBs) or management corporations (MCs). The rent was calculated based on the size of the mother title or the main lot and the burden of paying quit rent was shared among the occupants of the entire apartment.
It is speculated that the parcel rent would be higher than the previous quit rent. - FMT
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