Objections to new assessment tax rates at under 3%

LESS than 3% out of 807,441 property owners in five local councils around Johor have lodged their objections over the recent assessment tax rate review.

State housing and local government committee chairman Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor said the five local councils reviewing assessment rates were Johor Baru City Council, Iskandar Puteri City Council, Pasir Gudang City Council, Pengerang Municipal Council and Kluang Municipal Council.

“There are 807,441 property owners under these five local councils, but only 19,894 objections, or about 2.46%, have been received.”

Mohd Jafni said this in his winding up speech during the state assembly sitting in Kota Iskandar.

He added that from the total number of property owners, some 326,720 or 40.4% would have no change in their assessment tax.

He said the revaluation carried out by the five local councils was in accordance with provisions of the law under Section 137(3) of Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171).

The last revaluation exercise was in 2013, meaning the current tax rate had been in use for 10 years.

Mohd Jafni says legally, local councils can review assessment tax rates every five years.

Mohd Jafni said legally, councils were required to carry out reviews every five years.

“With a 10-year difference in revaluation works, there is a significant increase in the value of properties in some local council areas based on rapid development and economic activity as well as location of the properties.

“In addition, local councils also take into account additions to buildings and residences that have been made by property owners.

“However, there are also properties that saw a decrease in value,” he added.

Mohd Jafni said if these five local councils used the latest valuation level in 2023, the value of each property would see an even higher increase.

“Although the Act allows a maximum tax rate of 5%, the five local councils currently still use a minimum tax rate that does not exceed 1% by maintaining the highest tax rate at 0.7% and the lowest rate at 0.01%.”

Mohd Jafni added that even with the new assessment tax rates in Johor, it was still very much lower than those imposed in Selangor and Federal Territory.

He said 10 out of the other 11 local councils in the state were also in the process of revaluation of assessment rates, which would end in 2024 and come into force in 2025.