Chaos broke out this morning at the headquarters of the Selangor Water Management Board (Puas) over a dispute in which a group of residents claimed to have been overcharged for water supply.

The incident occurred as members of the Greenview Apartments Residents' Association (Gara), led by DAP member of parliament for Cheras Tan Kok Wai, insisted on meeting with Puas chief executive Mohd Sinon Mudzakir at his office in Jalan Pantai Baru, Kuala Lumpur.

Some 15 security personnel and three police officers were called in to disperse the 20 residents, even as Gara representatives and Tan attempted to discuss the issue with Puas officials.

However, Mohd Sinon left the meeting room abruptly after less than a minute of discussion, leaving two senior Puas officers to explain that the meeting could not take place without the residents' "co-operation".

A second meeting called shortly afterwards also failed, this time with Gara representatives walking out after several minutes.

Security officials recorded the names and identity card numbers of some of the residents before allowing them to leave the office. Mohd Sinon later called a press conference to provide Puas' side of the incident.

Wrong tariff code

Earlier, Gara chairperson Lye Sau Chee said the residents are being charged a water tariff exceeding that stipulated in the Selangor Government Gazette.

"The gazette says that for apartments, the applicable tariff rate is 70 sen per cubic metre. Puas is now charging us RM1.20 per cubic metre," he said.

Under the latest gazette published on March 29, 2001, all flats, apartments and condominiums without facilities are required to pay 70 sen per metre cube (tariff code 18) for water supply, while the RM1.20 rate applies to condominiums with facilities (tariff code 17).

Lye said Greenview, a medium-cost apartment, had been wrongly assigned code 17 since 1996 when the building was erected.

"Residents had been overpaying for six years until 2001, when we requested a revision based on the published tariff," Lye said.

He said the revision was approved by Selangor Waterworks in November 2001. However, the agency was later privatised.

Puas, which took over its services, wrote to the 1,096 Greenview units in April this year, informing them that the code would revert to the previous one with immediate effect.

"The gazette clearly says that we fall within the lower-rate category, but our appeal has been rejected. The letter from Puas states that the gazette was 'not clear' on the issue," he said.

No refund

Meanwhile, DAP's Tan said Puas had no grounds to make its own interpretation of the gazette as the document clearly lists the water rates to be paid for different types of residences.

"We are only following what is stated in the gazette. That is the law. They can charge whatever rate they want so long as it is clearly stated, but they cannot make their own interpretation," he told reporters.

Tan said Puas officials had also failed to respond to his questions as to whether the company was empowered to levy rates that are not in accordance with state decisions.

He said Puas' decision in this instance could affect many other high-rise units that fall in the same category as the Greenview apartments, which were priced at about RM50,000 when new.

"Anything priced between RM42,000 and RM120,000 is considered a medium-cost apartment. Such apartments represent the majority of high-rise housing - there are some 100,000 units in the Klang Valley. This is only the beginning of such problems," Tan said.

In addition, he said the Greenview residents were never refunded the overpayments between 1996 and 2001, when they were wrongly billed.

"Puas is doing this again without citing reasons except for the high cost of producing water. This (cost) could also be due to mismanagement or inefficiency," he said.

"Some 30 percent of water is also lost each year through leakage from burst pipes. Puas has been unable to deal with this problem, so it wants to recover its (losses) from consumers."

Tan said he would assist the residents in writing to Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Mohd Toyo and Works Minister S Samy Vellu before contemplating legal action against Puas.

Puas explains

At a press conference later, Mohd Sinon attributed the dispute to "interpretation problems", saying that tariff code 18 (70 sen per cubic metre rate) was applicable only to low-cost units.

"We buy water at an average of 82 sen per cubic metre from our suppliers. We cannot sell it for less than that rate. If we have to subsidise all buyers, Puas would face big problems," he said.

He said the company was facing a deficit of up to RM400 million annually, and was in arrears of RM1.2 billion owed to suppliers.

"Our (tariffs) are considered reasonable. They are low compared to tariffs set by other utility providers. The monthly (household) electricity bill is higher than what consumers pay for water, so even with higher rates (for water), (the overall bill) would not be a lot."

He said the cost of civil works to produce water is high because of heavy expenditure on construction of water networks, pumps and storage plants.

Mohd Sinon ruled out all possibility of review in the Greenview case, saying that residents unhappy with the decision could refer the matter to the courts.

On the failure of the meetings with Gara representatives, he said the residents had called off the discussions after he said that he could not revise the code immediately as requested.

Asked if Puas has received other similar complaints, general manager (operations) V Subramaniam said some residents' associations had inquired about the tariff, but that none had reacted like the Greenview group.

Subramaniam said Puas has submitted recommendations to the state government to amend the gazette, to assign rates based on 'low-cost' and ' non low-cost' categories.

He added that the state government is likely to act on the matter within the next two months.