MBPJ seizes belongings for tax owed

Tension arose as some hawkers (like the woman in baju kurung) were unhappy to have their items hauled away.

BUSINESS owners and residents in the Persiaran Surian area got a rude awakening yesterday when Petaling Jaya City Council officers arrived in the morning and started seizing items to pay off outstanding assessment taxes.

Officers from the council’s finance and enforcement departments visited properties like Pelangi Damansara and Pelangi Sentral, comprising commercial and medium-cost apartments, to execute warrant seizures on properties owing two years’ and more in assessment taxes.

House tenants were not spared the consequences of their landlords’ mistakes, as officers also seized items such as home printers and electrical items under Section 148 of the Local Government Act.

All together, said Assistant Accountant Zey Iskandar Mohd Jalan, who led the warrant seizures yesterday, there were 59 places here that had outstanding taxes totalling an estimated RM100,000.

While the city council usually brought along its EZ-Pay mobile counter for ratepayers to settle their outstanding assessment fees on the spot during such operations, it was not in a forgiving mood this time.

“We have issued notices since April last year, and we informed these people that warrants to seize their possessions had been issued in November, and we still gave them a last notice before Chinese New Year,” explained council Public Relations Officer Zainun Zakaria, who accompanied the enforcers.

Items seized are usually held by the council for a week, for the owner to redeem them by paying up the taxes owed, failing which these would be auctioned off.

Zainun added that although the Selangor government had exempted low-cost housing from paying council assessment taxes for 2016 and 2017, this did not mean that low-cost housing owners could hold off from paying what they owed for previous years.

For the Oct 2016-April 2017 period, the city council has about RM20mil in assessment fees owed for warrant cases, and has managed to retrieve half the amount so far.