Govt urged to waive maintenance fee for low-cost dwellers
SEMENYIH: Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has called on the state government to take another look at its present policy of exempting residents living in low-cost houses from paying the annual assessment.
PSM candidate Nik Aziz Afiq Abdul asked the state government to do away with the monthly maintenance fees instead of the assessment, saying that the monthly fees are a burden to low-income residents.
For example, for the residents of Bangi Jaya low-cost flats here, Nik Aziz said that the RM66 monthly maintenance is too burdensome.
“RM66 isn’t an amount that can be easily collected, especially for low-cost flat residents.
“The fee is to clean up the flats, sweep floors and to manage rubbish.
“However, these have not been done,” he told a press conference at the flats yesterday.
“We are urging the state government to look into this.
“We hope that the maintenance fees can be replaced with the assessment fee,” he added.
Nik Aziz urged the state government to look into the problems faced by low-cost housing residents.
“They are ready to bear the cost of assessment fees, but they are having problems with paying the maintenance fees,” he added.
A resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said that the maintenance fee was previously capped at RM33, which was already hard enough for a low-income wage earner to pay.
“Now, a new agent came in January 2019 and charged us dou- ble, which is RM66. It’s really tough for those living in flats,” he added.
Another resident, Chee Tang Yu, said that despite paying the monthly maintenance fees, the cleanliness in the flats remained poor.
“I don’t mind paying the RM66 fees if the place is kept clean, but the corridors of my unit is always filled with dog faeces, even though I clean it up all the time.
“I can’t stand it anymore. The smell of the dog faeces even creeps into my unit,” he said.
PSM secretary- general S. Arutchelvan also called for the state government to consider waiving the monthly maintenance fees and replace it with the assessment fee for residents in low-cost areas.
“We want a caring state government, where Selangor is the richest state in the country, to help the poor.”
In 2016, the state government exempted all low-cost and village home owners in Selangor from paying property assessment.
The Semenyih by-election, which will take place on March 2, is set to see a four-cornered fight between Pakatan Harapan, Barisan Nasional, PSM and an independent candidate.