MBPJ out to educate residents of low-cost flats’ on need to pay assessment fees

Convenient method: For residents in low-cost housing areas such as this one in Petaling Utama, the Finance Department had also brought one of MBPJ’s EZ-PAY counter vehicles, so they could settle their assessment rate arrears on the spot to avoid having their removable goods seized.

THE Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has collected more than RM146,000 from June 6 to 28 in nine locations in the PJS, PJU, SS22 and SS26 areas.

There is, however, an outstanding amount of more than RM658,000 in arrears from the nine commercial and residential areas.

Council finance officer Zey Iskandar Mohammed Jalil said the focus of MBPJ’s Operasi Waran campaign at the low-cost flats was to educate residents on the need to pay their assessment fees.

Aside from incentives such as council-provided towels, MBPJ also arranged for the homeowners to pay in instalments.

“We get the houseowner to pay a 50% downpayment, then settle all their arrears in three months. If they miss one month, the plan is cancelled,” said Zey.

Finance director Sa’diyah Khasiman said if the ratepayer could settle his or her arrears in one full payment, nothing would be seized from the property.

“They can either issue a cheque or transfer the funds via Maybank to us,” said Sa’diyah, who showed photos where a houseowner allowed the council enforcement personnel to cart away possessions such as audio speakers and even an exercise bicycle.

“They have seven days to pay their arrears and then they can reclaim their belongings. Once the week is up, we will auction off the seized items to recoup the assessment arrears,” Zey said.

Sa’diyah said there had only been one incident where one group of residents had raised objections against the council collecting its arrears in their area.

“But once we showed them the records that they had not paid or followed the instalment plans, then they could not object and had to allow us to carry out our duties,” said Sa’diyah.

The exercise, she said, would carry on till the end of the year.