Even if the Kuala Lumpur City Hall  (DBKL) needed to revalue properties in the federal territories after 21 years, it is no excuse to make owners pay significantly more, said Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.

dap kl convention 141012 teresa kok "It is clear that even if a property revaluation exercise causes the annual value of a property to rise steeply, it does not mean the assessment rate must go up exorbitantly," she added in a statement today.

Giving an example, Kok pointed out that owners are required to pay six percent and 12 percent of the annual value for residential and commercial properties respectively.

As such, if the annual value of a RM10,000 property is revised to RM20,000, the rate would go up from RM600 to RM1,200.

"But if the percentage rate imposed is reduced to three percent, the new assessment rate will remain the same at RM600," she said.

As such, Kok said DBKL could carry out with its revaluation exercise but should remedy it with a reduction in the percentage imposed as annual assessment rate.

"Many city dwellers have told me that if an increase in assessment rate is unavoidable, they expect an increase of not more than 5 percent to be a reasonable figure," she added.

Kok also urged those unhappy with the current assessment rate to continue filing objections with DBKL to make their voices heard.

"Let there be hundreds of thousands of objection letters submitted to the City Hall. Let the massive objections also be a form of pressure to the Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to come out with an acceptable solution," she said.

NONE Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng ( left ) said DBKL’s revaluation exercise was in disarray.

He furnished documents showing two separate valuations sent by DBKL for the exact same property, with one being a 540 percent hike and another was a 886 percent hike from an initial annual value of RM9,000.

"This shows that the whole proposed assessment readjustment valuation system is in a mess," he said.