What's the Impact of the Latest Assessment Rate Hike in KL?

More on the saga of the hike in assessments in Kuala Lumpur. How is this actually affecting us?

By now, we would all have received a notice from the city hall advicing us of our new valuation. I don't know about the rest of you, but I found my valuations double and some triple that of the last years. Take a typical one which was RM24,000/annum last year. The assessment I had to pay for that valuation was 6% x RM24,000 = RM1,440 per year. Now that it has gone up to RM40,000, I have to pay RM960 more. Some idiots are arguing that this is only extra RM80/month but if you have 10 such properties, it works out to RM800/month or actually much more than that. Not all the properties are being rented out.

I think on average those ordinary folks who own a single property are probably paying extra RM200 to RM300/month assuming their houses are worth much lesser than mine. Last year, the government dished out RM500 cash aid to these people and in the last election, promised to dish out more such aid. Besides DBKL assessment rates, petrol, sugar and many other subsistence has gone up. So, in summary here, this government is dishing out cash money with one hand and taking the money back with the other hand.