SIBU, May 25: The number of property owners registered for e-billing of their assessment rate is less than 20 per cent, which is way below the Sibu Municipal Council’s (SMC) targetted amount.
Speaking at the council meeting today, SMC chairman Clarence Ting said they would need to achieve a target of at least 70 per cent by the end of the year.
“This is between 800 to 900 registrations per month. By the end of the year, we will have only 5,000. This is not enough. We need at least 20,000 registrations a month to break 70 per cent by year end,” he said.
Registration for e-billing can be done at the UTCs (Urban Transformation Centre) but one must have an email account to receive the bill.
He appealed to the public to take the matter seriously as the council will not be sending out the physical bill next year.
“From next year onwards, we will be like banks which have stopped sending out physical statements to their customers. Those who want us to print it out, will have to pay for it,” he said
He said the council had implemented an e-billing concept this year as the number of rateable holdings have reached 53,000.
“This (e-billing) is crucial as we have about 53,000 rateable holdings now. Previously when it was 30,000, it took our staff two weeks to distribute the bill. But now we have to spend one month distributing it. So the only way to now is to go online,” he reasoned. — DayakDaily
