Pakatan Harapan has embarked on an online petition to protest the drastic increase in parking fees and its privatisation in Kuala Lumpur.

The coalition aims to gather 20,000 signatures before submitting the petition to the Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, said DAP's Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.

"Please help us to spread the news about the petition to the people of Kuala Lumpur," she said, adding that they have thus far managed to collect three signatures.

"We will submit it to Tengku Adnan. The decision-makers have made their decision in air-conditioned rooms.

"They don't know about people's hardship. They don't know how difficult it is to find parking nowadays and how difficult for us to take the bus."

Kok challenged the minister to take the public transport to work, from his home in Bukit Tunku to his office in Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and Putrajaya.

DBKL had increased its parking bay charges in the central business district (CBD) by 150 percent from July 18.

It affected areas such as Bukit Bintang, Sri Hartamas, Desa Hartamas, Bukit Damansara, Solaris Mont Kiara, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Bangsar.

Later, DBKL adjusted the hourly parking charges in these areas from RM2 an hour to RM1.50 for the first hour, and RM3 to RM2.50 for the second and subsequent hours following public outcry.

For areas outside the city centre with a high level of activities such as Sentul, Bangsar and Brickfields, the charges for the first and subsequent hours is RM1, while for areas outside the city centre such as Segambut, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Setiawangsa, Sungai Besi and Bandar Tun Razak, for the first and subsequent hours is 80 sen.

Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP), the welfare arm of the Federal Territories Ministry, which secured the privatisation of parking contract in KL and reportedly earning 65 percent of parking revenue, had raised concern.

YWP has to pay 35 percent or RM600,000 from gross revenue to DBKL every month.

Earlier, Kok, together with five other federal opposition lawmakers had a meeting with Deputy Federal Territories Minister Loga Bala Mohan Jaganathan.

They are Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, and Kuala Krai MP Hatta Ramli, who was present in his capacity as the Federal Territories Amanah chief.

They requested the DBKL to cancel the hike in parking fees as they felt the reviewed charges are still too high for motorists.

The MPs also brought up issues relating to connectivity of public transport, justification on privatisation and allowing YWP to collect a huge portion of the parking revenue.

Dissatisfaction with Loga's reply

Loga agreed to bring up the matter on parking fees to Tengku Adnan, but he requested the lawmakers to discuss the issue of privatisation in the Dewan Rakyat.

When approached later by journalists, Loga said: "Did you ask what DBKL is all about? I am not going to talk about it here, I will answer when I need to answer.

"I can't say whether there will be a reduction or status quo, I don't know. We will discuss."

The lawmakers, however, expressed their dissatisfaction with Loga's reply after meeting the deputy minister.

"He asked us to bring the issues to Parliament, which will commence in two months (Oct 17), " said Tan, who is also DAP acting chairperson.

"For your information, both BN's Titiwangsa MP (Johari Abdul Ghani) and Setiawangsa MP (Ahmad Fauzi Zahari) are the directors of Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan. They are part of the scheme," he said.

Malaysiakini has sent text messages to Ahmad Fauzi and Johari, who is also Finance Minister II, for their response.

Lim asked whether BN parties, namely Umno, MCA and Gerakan, agreed with the parking fees hike.

"It is a shame to remain quiet and take wages for nothing," he said.

Nurul urged the minister to conduct a joint meeting with all the relevant stakeholders, including the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), as promised by the government.

She asked DBKL to impose a moratorium on the hike before the joint meeting is held.

Nurul said they will return to DBKL next week.