Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) can appeal to the Federal Court over the Appeals Court decision in disallowing the water concessionaire to amend its statement of claim pertaining to its civil suit against the Selangor government for not increasing water tariffs.

This follows a Federal Court decision in Putrajaya today to grant Syabas’ application for leave to appeal.

Syabas is in a bid to set aside the decision by the Appeals Court to disallow the water company from amending its statement of claim to include two alternative rates to calculate its quantum of compensation.

A five-member panel led by Chief Judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin allowed Syabas’ application for leave to appeal on one legal question which would be determined by the Federal Court.

Zulkefli also directed that an early hearing date of the appeal be fixed.

Federal Court judges Abdull Hamid Embong, Ahmad Maarop, Hasan Lah and Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha were the other four judges presiding on the panel.

On Nov 10, last year, Syabas filed a civil suit, naming the Selangor government as the defendant. Subsequently, the state government brought the federal government as third party in the suit.

The company is seeking that the Selangor government pay RM1.05 billion in water tariff adjustment.

In its statement of claim, Syabas had stated that the calculation of the quantum of compensation it sought be based on the RM1.89 per cubic metre formula.

Syabas later filed an application at the Kuala Lumpur High Court to make amendments to its statement of claim to further include two other rates - RM1.82 and RM1.80 per cubic metre - as measurements for compensation.

Thirty-year concession

In its statement of claim, Syabas said that based on the concession agreement dated Dec 15, 2004 signed by the company, Malaysian government and the Selangor government, it was given a 30-year concession to buy treated water from water treatment operators, and supply the treated water to the distribution areas, in accordance with the terms spelt out in the agreement.

The company said that through a letter dated March 31, 2008, it sent a document to the Selangor government to support its application to increase the gazetted tariff of RM1.39 per cubic metre to a new agreed tariff of RM1.89 per cubic metre for the third operations period from Jan 1, 2009 to Dec 31, last year.

Syabas claimed the Selangor government had failed to inform the company whether it had agreed to increase the gazetted tariff to the agreed tariff.

The company also claimed that it had sent several letters to the Selangor government to claim compensation, in line with the concession agreement but failed to get any satisfactory reply from the state government.

In an affidavit-in-reply, the Selangor government, through the state secretary at that time, Ramli Mahmud, said the suit brought by Syabas was an abuse of the court process, stating that the water industry was undergoing restructuring as required under the Water Services Industry Act 2006 and the National Water Services Commission Act.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Syabas’s application to amend its statement of claim to include the alternative rates. However, the Appeals Court allowed the Selangor government’s appeal and overturned the High Court decision.

- Bernama