KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — Beginning next week, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) will conduct large-scale operations on 41,503 commercial and residential premises in the city with outstanding assessment tax payments amounting to RM182.7 million.

DBKL’s financial department director Mohamad Hamim said the operations included issuing notices of outstanding tax payments and discussing with account holders, especially those with large amounts of outstanding payments.

"During the operations throughout Kuala Lumpur which will involve about 700 enforcement officers, we will issue notices first and give them two weeks to pay up.

"The commercial premises will be sealed if they fail to make payments within the time set under Section 148 of the Local Government Act 1976,” he told reporters after the DBKL Assessment Tax Ops here today.

In the case of empty premises and no movable assets, a court order will be taken until the premises is auctioned under Section 151, of the Local Government Act 1976.

Mohamad said 25 business premises were confiscated in an operation conducted in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman today, involving outstanding taxes of RM1.6 million.

"For premises with huge outstanding payments, we will confiscate some of the items in them. They will also have to pay 30 per cent of the outstanding amount, and they are given one week to go to the head office to pay the remaining 70 per cent.

"If they fail to do so, the remaining items on their premises will be confiscated,” he said.

A total of 210 million commercial premises in the city were sealed in the operations today, involving RM384 million.

"They were given notices since September, reminding them to make payments, but they failed to do so,” he said.

The operations will be held until December.

"City dwellers are advised to pay their assessment taxes immediately to avoid any action taken against them,” he said. — Bernama