One Thousand Six Hundred and Ninety Three Years.
Recently the Majlis Perbandaran Seberang Prai (MPSP) on the mainland of Penang raised the rentals of the stalls in all their wet-markets and food complexes by between 20% to 100% - which took effect on Sept 1st.
All in all, 5,500 small businesses were affected with rental increases of between RM30 to RM120.
According to MPSP, the revenues it collected from rentals in all their wet-markets and food complexes was RM3.5 million in 2013 but expenditure was about RM4.4 million for renovation and maintenance - a short-fall of RM920,000 per year.
MPSP said “The increase of rental rates will not only help the council recover from its financial struggle but also allow us to build new facilities for traders.".
They also said that the rentals have not increased since 1992 and hence it is justified to increase now.
Wow! You mean that Gerakan managed to control the prices for 16 years but you can't even manage to control for 6 years and must increase by 100%?
Mee goreng hawker Ali Shuuiu, 62, who has been operating at the Lebuh Tenggiri food stall for the last 26 years, said he was upset by the council's plan to raise the rental.
"We are already struggling to make ends meet. Business has been very poor over the past two years as we are losing customers to the bigger and fancier food stalls. "Instead of helping us, the council has decided to increase our rental," he said.
BTW, isn't the mainland of Penang where the State Govt sold a staggering RM1.56 billion worth of state land to private developers JUST THIS YEAR ALONE?
By my calculation, the RM1.56 billion in revenues could cover 1,693 years of continuing deficit of RM920,000 per year.
Yes, One Thousand Six Hundred and Ninety Three Years.
What the heck happened to all that money you get from land sales? Disappeared?
Why do you keep victimizing small businesses by having increases of 100%?
Can't you just spend part of it to help out the small businesses?
And why the heck does the small businesses have to help the council out in their "financial struggles"? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Land sales in Penang Mainland in the year 2014
Batu Kawan land to Aspen Vision (49% owned by Ivory Properties) - RM484 million - http://bit.ly/1p5zEqd
Batu Kawan land to Paramount Group - RM67 million - http://bit.ly/1wznATj
Batu Kawan land to Eco World - RM1.02 billion - http://bit.ly/1sU7hAA
The price of Ubah: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/…/2014/11/06/the-price-of…/
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