Gerakan tells Penang govt to stop diverting attention
GEORGE TOWN: Gerakan has told Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to stop “diverting attention” from the state’s water tariff hike issue and “hiding behind” the Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP).
Gerakan secretary-general Datuk Liang Teck Meng said Lim should disclose the letters between the state government and National Water Services Commission Malaysia (SPAN) on the request to raise water tariff rates in Penang.
Liang, who is also SPAN chairman, said by doing so, the public would know who was right on the matter.
“Lim had defamed me by saying that I had indicated that the Federal Government was forcing the state government to raise its water rates.
“If I am being slandered, should I not have defended myself by pointing out that it was the Penang government that had first put in a large scale and broad water tariff increase request in December last year?” he said yesterday.
On Monday, Lim had claimed that SPAN wanted all states to increase their water rates.
Lim had said PBAPP initially applied to SPAN to increase the state’s water tariffs on Dec 23 last year, but later withdrew it on Feb 21 this year.
He had also alleged that SPAN, on April 25, wrote back to PBAPP, “objecting strongly” over its withdrawal.
Lim had said SPAN wrote another letter, dated June 23, to PBAPP, informing them that its plans to increase the Water Conservation Surcharge (WCS) would “not generate sufficient revenue for PBAPP and that a water tariff increase should be considered.”
Liang said he found it strange that PBAPP had come out to defend Lim over the matter.
“Why can’t he (Lim) take responsibility for his baseless accusations and fight his own battles?” he asked.
Referring to PBAPP’s statement on Thursday, Liang said PBAPP had revealed that it would be running into losses and capital deficiency, and that it would need an emergency loan from the state government this year.
“Clearly, this is not a sustainable situation.
“In such a situation, SPAN has every right to question how the water company will address this lack of sustainability and ask the water operators to evaluate several options, which may include revising water rates or reducing capital or operating expenses.
“To interpret this as forcing them to raise rates is pure slander,” he said.
He said the state government had admitted that its request to increase water rates in December was subsequently withdrawn in February this year, following a public consultation exercise with the non-governmental organisations.
“It was later replaced by a request for a more than doubling of the so-called WCS, which is still an increase in water rates by any other name.
“Water operators should not be in the habit of putting in requests and then pulling out requests later on, which they admitted was at the request of the DAP-led state government — probably due to political reasons.”
Liang also said that from the frequent increases in water rates since 2010, there was no guarantee that the large increase asked for in December last year would not be re-submitted after the general election as the water operator, and also the Penang government, desperately needed the additional RM150 million per year revenue to cover the projected losses.
“This is despite multiple increases in water rates since 2010,” he said.
It was previously announced that a surcharge of RM1 would be imposed on every 1,000 litres of water after 35,000 litres of water were used.
Previously, the surcharge was 48 sen for every 1,000 litres of water used after the total water use hit beyond 35,000 litres.