RANTAU, April 1 — Umno’s acting president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan today urged Putrajaya against increasing the water tariff, saying it would only burden the public.
The Barisan Nasiona (BN) candidate for Rantau by-election said Putrajaya could instead engage in other means to help improve water services without incurring more cost to the people.
“Enough of burdening the people. When I was the mentri besar, I never even intended to raise the water tariff,” the former Negri Sembilan mentri besar said in a press conference in Kampung Tanjong here.
“Instead they should look at other means to improve water efficiency without taxing the people. There are other ways to do it.”
Yesterday, Water, Land, and Natural Resources Minister Xavier Jayakumar said the tariff increase was necessary to improve the quality of water services.
Mohamad, also known as Tok Mat, said the behaviour of taxing the people has become the norm for the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration amid a struggle with low global oil prices and low demand for domestic goods such as palm oil.
“There are four main ways to gain revenue which is through development, natural resources, taxes and debt. But we should not depend on taxes too much.
“Now, the government does not put an emphasis on development and that is not good. Now they begin to venture into the tax and debt sectors,” he said.
Mohamad also claimed that the nation’s debt has risen since PH took over, from RM686 billion to RM773 billion, stating it could be more if they take into account the RM82 billion the federal government supposedly took from Petronas.
