Govt looking into Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act
Published on: Saturday, November 28, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: THE government is still looking into the adoption of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act (Act 672) in the State, said Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.He said the Ministry has applied for an allocation of RM745 million to implement the construction of seven centralised landfills and six garbage collection centres in Sabah.He added, the Ministry is still waiting for the approval from the Federal Government.
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"If the Act is adopted, then matters pertaining to solid waste can be managed well and effectively and in turn reduce the burden of local governments," he said in his winding-up speech at the State Assembly. Hajiji also said the services of the Sabah branch of Royal Institute of Surveyor Malaysia (RISM) has been attained to help the Local Government and Housing Ministry to assess the cost of housing construction in the State.The Ministry has also formed the House Prices Re-assessment Committee to evaluate the construction cost and to ensure the prices are affordable and adhering to the profit margin rules of not exceeding 30 per cent, he said."My Ministry is also keen to know the specific factors contributing to the increase of house prices of late, that made low income groups not being able to afford to own houses.
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"As such, my Ministry is in talks with RISM Sabah Branch to conduct a research on the increase of house prices."All this while, we were told that the increase is caused by the increase of land prices, development plan preparation cost, capital contribution by utility supplies, increase in construction material cost, increase of building workers' salary and the effort of housing developers in maximising profits," Hajiji said.
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He said, it is hoped that the research will be evaluated and disclosed the actual factors on the increase of house prices so that the government can ensure the prices are reasonable and enable "the low income groups own houses more easily.""The survey is expected to be completed in a year and the findings will be announced later."While admitting that the Housing and Town Development Board (LPPB) has forged joint ventures with private firms to build housing on the land provided by the government, Hajiji said, such joint venture is not solely focused on profit but to cover the operational and administrative cost as the government doesn't provide any allocation for LPPB for that purpose."I need to explain here that LPPB will continue to implement the government policies in building low and medium cost houses and affordable houses if the government channelled such allocation," he said.According to Hajiji, the Ministry will also consider the establishment of a Single Mothers Housing Scheme."The welfare of single mothers has always been given a priority when my Ministry allocated the houses for the People's Housing Project (PPR)."My Ministry welcomes the proposal of a cooperation with the Community Development and Consumers Affairs Ministry on information sharing of single mothers. My Ministry is ready to receive the single mothers list from the said ministry any time."Hajiji said, the Ministry can't consider the proposal of excluding low cost house owners from paying rates as local authorities have to provide services to each premise under its rating areas."Regarding the proposal of local authorities to absorb Goods and Services Tax (GST), the government has already decided that local authorities do so. "Not all local authorities (GST-registered local authorities are Sandakan Municipal Council, Tawau Municipal Council, Keningau, Penampang, Papar, Tuaran and Lahad Datu District Councils) are registered with GST as the yearly revenues for most local authorities don't reach RM500,000."The expected amount of GST absorbed by the seven registered local authorities are RM914,000 a year."The Ministry, according to Hajiji, will also draft standards for earthquake resistant buildings."The State Government is now in talks with Standards Department of Malaysia (Standards Malaysia) to get an understanding to conduct researches and come up with a complete and solid standards. "Standards Malaysia has allocated RM200,000 last month for related activities, including conducting a learning visit to countries that have established a standards for earthquake resistant buildings to find a suitable benchmark for Sabah."The Town and Regional Planning Department has also conducted a seminar on the preparation of an earthquake resistant building guideline on Nov 17 this year," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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