SHAH ALAM, Nov 1 — The majority of Selangor residents will still enjoy free water under the Darul Ehsan Water Scheme next year, Selangor Mentri Besar Amiruddin Shari said today.
He said 65 per cent of 1.2 million water accounts holders in the state earn less than RM4,000 per month, and therefore are eligible to apply for the benefit.
“Sixty-five per cent out of 1.2 million user accounts can apply. It will help those in need. Now it is targeted, whereas before it was across the board.
“It will start after March next year so everyone will still have free 20 cubic meters of water,” he told reporters after tabling the Selangor Budget 2020 here.
The free water programme was started on June 1, 2008, and consumers with individual meters enjoyed a rebate of RM11.40 every month.
Those in flats, apartments and condominiums using bulk meters started enjoying the same benefits from June 2010.
However, on November 23 last year, the state assembly voted to realign the free water programme so that the true purpose of the Peduli Rakyat initiative could be achieved, which was to reduce the burden of targeted group.
Meanwhile, Selangor State Assembly Opposition Leader, Rizam Ismail said although he lauded the state government’s effort to reduce the Budget, he was worried that the state will request more funding to do so.
“We see that the operation expenditure has increased compared to last year. For development expenditure, there was about an RM147 million reduction.
“We are worried that reducing the total Budget will only see the state once again table the additional Budget as it did this year,” he said.
In August, Selangor tabled an additional RM123 million budget to fund its programme to help residents by providing them business opportunities, among other things.
Earlier today, Amiruddin tabled the state Budget 2020, reducing it for next year to RM2.33 billion from the RM2.56 billion allocated for this year.
The mentri besar said the state succeeded in reducing its deficit from RM360 million last year to RM133 million with an expected RM2.2 billion in revenue next year.
