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November 16, 2009 19:39 PM
Pahang Water Supply Department To Be Corporatised Next Year
KUANTAN, Nov 16 (Bernama) -- The Pahang State Legislative Assembly was told Monday that the state government had agreed to corporatise the Pahang Water Supply Department (JBA) pending finalisation of certain issues.
State Housing, Basic Utilities and Transport Committee chairman Mohd Soffi Tan Sri Abdul Razak said there were some issues and corporatisation terms that needed to be discussed with the federal government.
"The discussion will involve issues like the management and financial control of the corporatised JBA, which is to be known as Pengurusan Air Pahang Berhad (PAIP).
"Besides, there are several other issues concerning the state government's claims over water catchment grants from the federal government that also need to be discussed," he said in reply to Datuk Pang Tsu Ming (BN-Semambu) who wanted to know about the latest developments on the corporatisation of water supply in Pahang.
Mohd Soffi said the discussion was vital to ensure that people in Pahang would enjoy a high-quality and holistic water supply.
On Norolazali Sulaiman's (BN-Guai) supplementary question on water tariffs, Mohd Soffi said the state government would ensure that the tariffs would not be increased after the corporatisation of JBA.
"The corporatisation is expected to take place next year pending the discussions," he said.
To another question from Chang Hong Seng (BN-Teruntum), Mohd Soffi said the state government had requested that its RM67.4 million loan for maintaining water supply in the state be borne by the federal government.
On housing issue, Mohd Soffi said the Pahang government was planning to tighten the conditions to transfer house ownership to prevent the recipients of People Housing Project (PPR) from selling their units.
One of the conditions to be tightened was to extend the ownership period from five to ten years.
"Right now, PPR house owners can sell their units after five years of occupation. We are mulling over the plan to extend the time to ten years," he said in reply to Wan Salman Wan Ismail (BN-Jengka).
-- BERNAMA
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