VOXPOP 'What kind of crap is this? Rebate is counted as rental. Any which way you can look at it or spin it, NFC has deviated from its objectives.'

NFC clarifies 'unreasonable' condo rentals

vox populi small thumbnail ONG: In normal practice, when offered a 10 percent discount, buyers will pay 90 percent of the advertised sales price.

In the case of the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), it claims that it was offered a 10 percent discount on the purchase but still paid the full 100 percent price. The discount will only be paid back in instalments.

Since NFC now claims that the repayment of the monthly discount instalments, together with the monthly rental income, are also income, will their tax accounts show the amount of RM690,000 x 2 as income?

NFC ought to expose the actual written details of such an unusual and interesting method of getting a discount, which if true appears more like a kickback.

Che: Being just a normal person with a bit of cow sense, I analyse the situation simply as follows - each apartment costs RM6.21 million, annual rental is RM204,000, so gross return is 3.29 percent.

But other actual expenses have to be taken into account, for example, management and maintenance fees, assessments, etc. I conservatively average this at RM2,500 per month.

Therefore, the net annual rental is only RM174,000 per year which represents a 2.8 percent return on investment.

And I am assuming the apartment is purchased fully furnished with all expensive furniture and fittings and electrical appliances like air conditioning, fridges, TVs provided by the developer at no extra cost.

But even that, some costs have to be provided for wear and tear and for replacements. So apart from the moral and legal aspects of it, I cannot understand how this action can be economically sensible.

Maybe the Oxford graduate who so strongly defends this can enlighten me.

MY Kee: Put plainly, they bought two units at RM6.21 million each. Rented out for RM17,000, meaning a return of about 3.29 percent per annum per unit.

At the same time, they had to lend RM690,000 per unit to the developer, and receive a monthly ‘rebate' of about RM58,000 for a year. So what happened to the "12 percent" return?

Kleo: So let me get this straight - NFC bought two condominium units at RM6.2 million each, rented each out at RM17,000 per month (RM204,000 per annum per condo), lent RM1.4 million to the developer in return for RM57,000 monthly rebates (amounting to about RM700,000 rebates per annum per condo) and Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's CEO husband ‘Dr' Mohamad Salleh Ismail in his infinite wisdom says he has got a revenue of RM204,000 + RM700,000 = RM904,000!

I think if I borrow his car and give it back on his birthday, he will be jumping for joy over his birthday ‘present'.

Rocky: What kind of crap is this? Rebate is counted as rental. So the hole gets deeper. Any which way you can look at it or spin it, NFC has deviated from its objectives.

TehTarik: What a spin. And finally the truth has come out. The gross yield is 3.29 percent but the net yield (minus maintenance fees, etc) is even lower, and could be anyway around 2.6% or so. So the 12.9 percent mentioned earlier was ‘bullshit'.

This is another example of how the political elite and their families treat the rakyat - as illiterate fools. Increasingly, this appears to be a police case under the CBT (criminal breach of trust) category.

Jack Leong: Why should people stop telling lies? It's because you need another lie to cover the lie, and many more layers of lies to cover the earlier ones.

Amanah moots caretaker gov't system

Anonymous: This is a very good idea, on paper. But who are going to be the people forming the caretaker government? Can the caretaker government get the civil servants, police and armed forces to be impartial?

Under the present system, if they can do so until a new government is formed, then there isn't the need for a caretaker government.

Unfortunately, we are still a long way from political maturity. If we were, there would be no need for such a proposed system.

Ferdtan: Whatever the motives of Amanah - a new pressure group consisting of many ex-BN leaders - we welcome their proposals in good faith.

The proposals are nothing new. Opposition leaders and many NGOs have been very vocal fighting for such reforms for a long time. But we shall try to refrain from shooting the messengers, and since they were once part of the government, at least they carry some weight.

Moreover, the mainstream media won't find it easy to ignore them, like they usually do with opposition leaders when they have something good to say.

Anonymous_4031: Amanah has come up with very good ideas and it is now up to the government and the PSC (parliamentary select committee) to implement them before the polls are conducted.

To pre-empt the implementations of the PSC by holding the general election will make all efforts of the select committee futile.

Holding the election beforehand will place the BN in a bad light, and will show Malaysian voters in particular and the international community that the BN government is not sincere in implementing the suggestions put forward by Bersih and Amanah.

In fact, an early election before implementation of PSC's recommendations will show that the setting-up of the PSC is mere shadow play.

L Joy: We can all guess why Amanah is echoing Pakatan Rakyat's views. They know very well that the impending defeat of Umno is real and so it is using this pressure tactic in the hope of getting into positions in BN or alternatively cooperate with Pakatan on condition that Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah gets to be prime minister. After all, Umno and Najib are likely to send Anwar Ibrahim to jail come December.

Why aren't Razaleigh or Amanah condemning this political trial? Why have they no views on all the corrupt cases reported in the past decade, and that are still going on without hindrance?

Imran: These people sound like a bunch or frustrated politicians left out in the cold. They condoned BN's actions and kept mum when they were ministers.

Sarawakian_3ff9: One can't help but be suspicious of this group. When they were in positions of power, they defended and embraced BN's abuse of power, having taken advantage of it themselves.

Now that they are sidelined, they make noise. Nevertheless, we applaud them for coming out to defend our rights. Better late than never.

JusticeKini: It is indeed a real irony that these same politicians are the one who helped Dr Mahathir Mohamad dismantle the whole apparatus of the government machinery of the judiciary, police, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Election Commission, etc.

If they sincerely hope to change for the better, then join Pakatan once and for all. In this way, Pakatan, too, can get benefit of their wisdom, if there is any left.

Kamalappans: I just wonder why is this group is echoing Pakatan's platform. Perhaps they are too shy to admit that Pakatan is doing right, or they are too shy to join Pakatan.

Righteous: You are telling Umno-BN to relinquish its powers - fat chance!

 

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .