BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

LEGISLATIVE Council member Yang Berhormat Hj Awang Ahmad Morshidi POKDSDDLU Hj Awg Abdul Rahman raised concerns regarding the efficiency of the Bandar Seri Begawan municipal board in maintaining the cleanliness of the Capital especially with the additional areas included in the rezoning of Bandar Seri Begawan.

Under the care and responsibility of the BSB municipality, commercial buildings are taxed 12 per cent of its annual rent while residential buildings are levied the same amount annually per metre square.

The tax collected goes to the provision of services such as one per cent each for police posts, fire stations, town and municipal services, and two per cent each for street lighting and its services, providing access road from the main road, water supply, trash collection and management and sewage.

“Consequently as an extension of these services and taxing of buildings in the areas under the rezoning, this should have changed the face of the Capital to make it more appealing, beautiful and aesthetically pleasant,” said the LegCo member.

However, this is not the case, he added, as a drive around the extended areas will show that the surroundings are in a state of disarray and not as pleasant as it should be.

To address the concerns raised by YB Hj Awang Ahmad Morshidi where services provided by the municipal board not as efficient or as good as it was before despite still being taxed under the building tax, the minister asked permission from the council to point out several factors.

For the areas within the extended and revised coverage of the municipal board, not all areas in the new zoning are taxed especially with building tax, as suggested by YB Hj Awang Ahmad Morshidi.

Only industrial and commercial buildings are being levied for now.

Residential and private premises in the new zones are still exempted from any taxes, said the minister noting that based on this alone, the concerns are not those of the people in residential areas.

“Are the revised zones too big which points to the municipal board being unable to handle or extend the services to the additional areas or even that the board is currently facing a shortage in cleaners, where according to YB Hj Awang Ahmad Morshidi, this shortage is due to the reluctance of people to work as cleaners because the name in itself is ‘not glamorous’?”

“YB Hj Awang Ahmad Morshidi’s suggestion to change the job title and to introduce a more attractive scheme in order to encourage people to take up this vocation is a good idea,” thanked the minister.

Other suggestions and issues brought up by YB Hj Awang Ahmad Morshidi was a suggestion to have the Labour Department consider excluding companies that have more than 10 employees from utilising job agencies and instead use the company’s own human resource department while another question brought up was of local secretaries and accountants given their importance in the administration and livelihood of any one business.

The Brunei Times