Terence Fernandez: Assessment hike – Did Tengku Adnan act alone?

 

 

Terence Fernandez, fz.com 

 

IF it is true that the incumbent federal government feels that it is punishing KL folks by re-evaluating properties by almost 300%, they are on the right path.

 

City folks have been having sleepless nights thinking about the corresponding hike in assessment rates, with many wondering if they are paying the price for their choice at the ballot box on May 5, 2013.

 

The “opposition” after all, controls 10 of the 12 seats in Kuala Lumpur. But if current sentiments are anything to go by, then in four years the status quo would remain the same, give or take one or two seats.

 

Of course, “punishment” seems a far-fetched theory. Surely the ruling party would want to regain the seats they lost come GE 14!

 

Unless of course, as some “political analysts” put it, they are just trying to make as much as they can at the expense of ratepayers, since there is a clear and present danger of the Barisan Nasional (BN) losing in 2018.

 

This school of thought though plausible is still something that must be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

What is fact is this: Federal Territories minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor woke up one morning on the wrong side of the bed. He then decided that the government needs to make more money.

 

Coffers are running low, and war chests needed to be refilled to fund, among others the retaking of the Klang Valley from the Pakatan Rakyat.

 

So since Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has not reviewed its assessment for 21 years, now looks like as good as any time to raise property value.

 

Only problem is, Tengku Adnan did not consult anyone, nor did he present it at the weekly cabinet meeting. So when property owners started receiving notices from DBKL, apart from the nasi lemak vendor in Kampung Baru; the electrician in Taman OUG or the taxi driver in Sentul, Tengku Adnan’s fellow cabinet colleagues with multi-million ringgit homes in Bukit Tunku and Damansara were also caught unawares.

 

But instead of hauling up Tengku Adnan and questioning why he acted arbitrarily and dug the hole BN is in even deeper, his colleagues rallied around him, struck by a characteristic Malaysian illness – “bodoh sombong” – and presented a united front supporting the hike.

 

However, backstage, they are scratching their heads wondering how to get out of this quagmire without losing face.

 

This perhaps explains why there have been confusion over the quantum as well as when the new valuation will be implemented – of if it will be implemented at all.

 

In a clear demonstration of left hand not knowing what the right hand is up to, Tengku Adnan even went after his deputy Datuk Loga Bala Mohan for saying that the hike in assessment rates will be postponed indefinitely pending public hearings.

 

Mind you, Loga said this in Parliament.

 

Tengku Adnan however said the deadline will be pushed to March for the special panel formed to gather feedback on the hike.

 

That even his wife is upset over the excessive amount is of little or no significance to the 1.2 million property owners. And frankly, Datin Seri is probably cross with her husband over some other issue or vice (you know like how a wife nags her hubby for smoking or drinking). But seriously, what the government has yet to explain is, do KL-ites still pay the new assessment?

 

The present notices say that the objection period ends on Dec 17. But feedback can be given till March to the panel.

 

But the same notice says a penalty will be imposed if assessment is not paid by Feb 28 next year. Now how? If the kepala doesn’t know what is going on, how does it expect the rest of us minions to make sense of it?

 

Even the mayor Datuk Ahmad Phesal Talib has put his foot in his mouth by boasting about City Hall’s strong fiscal position in his Budget 2014 speech.

 

So what is the extra money needed for? And what do they plan to do with the billions it already has?

 

Chang Kim Loong, the honorary secretary of the House Buyers Association (HBA) said his association is galvanising lawyers, accountants, auditors and ratepayers in KL to file a public interest law suit against DBKL.

 

The action is firstly to get the local authority to open up its books and account for how it spends our money.

 

If this is of any indication over how our money is being spent, am now the defendant in a defamation case filed by a flower supplier, following a report on City Hall’s contract for flowers and landscaping that cost almost RM40 million.

 

Then mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail had cancelled the contract which he regarded as excessive and relied on City Hall’s own landscaping department to beautify the city and its parks.

 

I dare not say any more about this for fear of being in contempt but seriously the ones who really are in contempt are the ones who want to squeeze more out of an already suffering populace facing dark fiscal times.