NST


Shah Alam to spend less Halim Said

PJ Mayor Datuk Mohd Roslan Sakiman (left) and Shah Alam Mayor Mazalan Md. Noor
SHAH ALAM: The Shah Alam City Council has cut down on its budget for next year even as other local councils in Selangor are spending more.

Shah Alam mayor Mazalan Md. Noor said the council's estimated budget for next year is RM204.53 million. "It is a 3.02 per cent decrease compared to the 2008 budget of RM210.89 million," he said. The biggest cut is expected to be in the council's management cost where the council members have unanimously agreed to reduce it by about 10 per cent.

The 2009 budget works out to RM186.17 million compared to last year's RM207 million.Mazalan assured that the decrease in council management cost will not affect the council's operations and delivery service. "We are cutting down on management cost but not the service." He added that assessment collection remains the biggest revenue earner for the council."Last year the council collected RM145.97 million from assessments. Next year assessment income is expected to be RM146.83 million which is an increase by 0.59 per cent," he said.

On Thursday, the council held a special meeting to obtain the consent of the councillors for the 2009 budget which was submitted to the state secretary a day later.

During the meeting, councillor Ang Leng Kiat proposed a reduction on the assessment rate for residential houses to 2.5 per cent but it was rejected by the other councillors.

The Shah Alam assessment rate for residential premises remains at four per cent for landed property and 3.5 per cent for high-rise buildings.However, Mazalan admitted that the council stands to lose about RM15 million in penalties for late payment of assessment and sale of land after it was declared illegal for the council to collect the fines. "There was a court order recently stopping local councils from collecting penalties for late assessment payments and we have already sold several lots of land of the council worth about RM4 million last year. We could not generate more income from this scheme as there is no more land to sell," he said.

The council agreed to allocate a whopping RM18.36 million compared to the 2008 budget of RM3.8 million for development in the city. "The council will spend about RM4 million for the construction of the city's main bus terminal in Section U1 which is expected to be completed in two or three years' time," he said.

Among the other development projects identified are:• RM2.5 million for road resurfacing work

• RM1.5 million for upgrading flood mitigation project
• RM800,000 for upgrading street lights in housing schemes
• RM100,000 for refurbishment of bus shelters in the city
• RM1.5 million for improving flood mitigation system in Kota Kemuning