KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — Local Government and Housing Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin will seek feedback from the housing industry on the relevance of the Bumiputera quota for affordable homes in the new housing policy.

Speaking at a forum during the “Malaysia: A New Dawn” Conference here today, Zuraida said the National Housing Policy 2.0 looks at the income level of house buyers and therefore, race could be considered a moot point.

“Going by the new policy for affordable homes, we categorise houses into three categories based on income. It doesn’t matter who you are, what race you belong to, it doesn’t matter if you are a government servant.

“However, on the Bumiputera quota, I have to get industry feedback, but going by the concept of income, I don’t think it will be relevant anymore because we go by the category of income level. But I will still need to get industry feedback (on the issue),” Zuraida said in reply to a question from a housing developer.

The unnamed developer was complaining that many unsold units in his projects happened to be reserved for Bumiputera buyers.

Meanwhile, Works Minister Baru Bian, who shared the floor with Zuraida, has admitted that his ministry has not received enough budget to maintain around 19,500km of federal roads under its purview and is risking more than 30 per cent maintenance backlog if the Finance Ministry does not approve a budget increase.

“Every year, we have less than 50 per cent of the budget that should be given to us, which is RM2 billion a year to maintain this infrastructure, but sadly, we only receive RM600 to RM800 million.

“Now we won’t be looking at that figure. We’ve been asked to reduce that figure. We have a 30 per cent road maintenance backlog. Every year, you used to build infrastructure and maintain it. If not enough budget, then the backlog of maintenance increases from 30 to 40 or 50 per cent,” he said.

Baru’s ministry is in the midst of negotiating with the Finance Ministry to obtain more allocation in order to protect the safety of road users.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is expected to deliver the 2019 Budget in about three weeks’ time.