Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor will review a the proposed assessment hike for properties in Kuala Lumpur after meeting MPs.

Even his wife, like many KLites, was fuming over the astronomical rise that has not been seen in 21 years, he said.

After a closed-door meeting with 11 MPs from the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur for over an hour, Tengku Adnan said he would come to a solution that would not burden the rakyat so much.

However, he declined to say whether rates will be rolled back and by how much.

NONE He said the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has received 2,500 complaints about the rate hikes, and one of them was from his wife.

“Yesterday I had problems even with my wife. When my wife told me of her rate (she owns a few properties)... one of her penthouses, the value was only RM40,000 (rental annual value) and now it went up to RM117,000. And she thought she was going to pay RM117,000.

“I said, not RM117,000. Six percent of RM117,000... Of course, she also grumbled lah , because that is double of what she is paying.

“I said, 'okay you can grumble, you just write to Bandaraya',” Tengku Adnan told reporters at the DBKL headquarters.

He said that he would be fair and announce a new decision by Dec 17. The move to raise revenue from property owners was a shocker to many as it was the first major hike in 21 years.

NONE Tengku Adnan ( left in photo ) told reporters that DBKL had expected to raise an extra RM400 million a year in revenue from the move and needed the money to spend on projects to upgrade roads, markets and other infrastructure.

“I will decide what is best for the rakyat,” he said. “I assure the rakyat that we won’t burden them.”

He added that raising taxes would help DBKL break away from reliance on federal allocations as spending on KL city “was not a priority”.

'Not a bid to punish KL-ites'

Tengku Adnan, who is also BN secretary-general, denied that the move was a bid to punish KL-ites for voting for the opposition in the last election.

“We would like to be self-sustaining, it’s better,” Tengku Adnan said. He added that on infrastructure alone, KL has budgeted to spend RM3 billion over the next five years.

NONE KL Mayor Ahmad Phesal ( left ), who was also at the meeting, said that the federal government allocated about RM1.49 billion for development projects in greater KL under the 10th Malaysia Plan but this was also not enough. An extra RM400 million a year was usually given for upgrading works and infrastructure maintenance.

DBKL was also owed arrears amounting to RM300 million, accumulated over the last 15 years, which it was still trying to collect, Ahmad said.

Ahmad said that by law, DBKL can impose a maximum rate of 35 percent tax on the assessed rental value. Currently, the rate stood at 12 percent for commercial properties and 6 percent for residential properties.

There has already been a groundswell of protest against the hike since KL-ites since DBKL started sending out some 507,000 notices  a week ago. Pakatan MPs were among those who helped channel the protest to DBKL through proper form-filling.