KUCHING, March 21: Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) will work closely with elected representatives in its area to get assessment defaulters to pay their taxes.
DBKU is serious about collecting overdue assessment taxes, which has reached RM18.4 million this year. Some of the unpaid assessment dated back to 1989, it said.
“DBKU, as the local government managing North Kuching, strive to ensure that the living quality of its residents remains conducive with the best service delivery.
“However, the continuous rise in unpaid assessment taxes is making it difficult and a challenge for DBKU to bear the cost of managing and maintaining the city,” the city hall said in a statement today.
DBKU added that numerous measures had been taken to collect unpaid assessment taxes, including caveat, imposing fines and penalties on defaulters, set up mobile counters to ease payment as well as introducing online platforms such as Jompay, PayBills, Maybank2u, Sarawak Pay and setting up payment counters at DBKU and other government agencies.
The latest move taken by city hall is to collaborate with local elected representatives to create awareness and dialogues with the community on the need to pay their assessment rates.
DBKU, led by its mayor, Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai, paid a courtesy call on Samariang assemblywoman Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali on Tuesday (March 19) at her office at Wisma Bapa Malaysia to discuss the tax defaulters issue.
The Samariang constituency contributed 20.65 per cent to the amount of defaulted assessment tax.
DBKU is planning to collaborate with Sharifah Hasidah, who is also the Assistant Minister for Law, State-Federal Relations and Project Monitoring, to organise awareness programmes on public responsibility to settle their assessment rates.
The programme will include a series of briefing and dialogues and also the setting up of payment counters.
DBKU will also hold similar programmes with other elected representatives under its area of jurisdiction. — DayakDaily
