SHAH ALAM, 18 June: The development charges imposed by the Selangor Government on developers to upgrade and restore public infrastructure does not burden the people.
The Executive Councillor in charge of Local Government, Studies and Research, Datuk Teng Chang Khim, said that the collection of this charges have been included in the development charges fund, in accordance with provisions under Section 34 (4) of the same Act.
He said, referring to the charges, that the charges set are 20 percent for district councils and 30 percent for municipal councils and city councils from the increasing value of land.
“If we look at it positively, the charges are not to burden the people because it is a necessity in ensuring that our public amenities continue to be preserved in the future,” he said.
He said this in response to an oral question from Sulaiman ABdul Razak (BN-Permatang) during the Selangor State Assembly session today.
In the meantime, Teng did not rule out the possibility that house prices will increase when this charges are imposed, but there have been no specific studies regarding this matter.
He said that the accumulation of charges is the willingness of the State Government to manage infrastructural needs without depending on provisions from the collection of taxes imposed.
“We will take after the example of implementation in Kuala Lumpur and this is not a new matter; they have been doing it for over 10 years and we have also seen good management.
“We will also learn from the failure of the previous BN administration where the assessment fees were not raised due to political reasons and there were no sufficient finances, causing the people to be unhappy because most of the infrastructure could not be repaired,” said Teng, who is also the Assemblyman for Sungai Pinang.
To date, the total accumulation from the charge collected is over RM2 million from all 12 local authorities.
NS
