GEORGE TOWN, March 17 — Former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng has criticised Chow Kon Yeow over “unjust and illogical” land tax hikes reaching as high as 4,000 times, challenging his successor to “go to the ground” to witness the financial shock facing his own constituents.
In a statement today, the Bagan MP argued that Chow’s recent admission that the new calculation system has triggered increases of hundreds and even thousands of times, is a betrayal of the people’s trust, particularly as such hikes were never part of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) election manifesto.
“The excuse that there has been no land tax increase for 32 years since 1994 cannot be accepted as justification for such a sudden, soaring and excessive hike.
“As a point of comparison, the fee for statutory declarations was raised to RM10 from RM4 on 16 January 2023 — the first increase in nearly 30 years since 4 March 1993,” Lim said.
In contrast, he described the soaring rates in Penang as “excessive,” citing a house in Kampung Sekolah, Juru, where the tax jumped 2,842 times from a mere RM12 to over RM34,000.
He provided further evidence of what he termed a “flawed” system, noting that the land tax for Li Hwa Butterworth Chinese School soared 4,036 times from RM2 to over RM8,000, while the Bola-bola Low-Cost Flats in his own constituency saw a five-fold increase to more than RM22,000.
Lim argued that these figures demonstrate a failure to act fairly toward landowners, specifically those owning village houses and low-cost strata units who are now facing a sudden and “unacceptable” financial burden.
“The chief minister is fond of stating that everything I have raised on behalf of landowners, or regarding these excessive land tax increases, is without basis or does not present the full picture.
“If that is the case, the chief minister should go to the ground himself and not rely solely on feedback from Land Office officials or his assistants, in order to know the true situation,” Lim said.
Lim then demanded that Chow comprehensively review and replace the current land tax calculation system with one that is logical, fair, and reasonable for all 370,000 land lot owners in the state.
