A 360 take on the PENJANA
By Gunaprasath Bupalan
(an interview with Datuk Chang Kim Loong)
The government recently announced
three specific measures to reactivate
the property industry in the Penjana
economic recovery plan (Plan Jana
Semula Ekonomi Negara). We examined
these goodies and came up with the
conclusion that at face value, it is a
good plan to revive the economy but is
it actually well planned?
To get to the bottom of this, we decided
to have a chat with Datuk Chang
Kim Loong, the honorary secretarygeneral
of the National House Buyers
Association, a non-governmental, notfor-profit
organisation wholly manned
by volunteers. We wanted honest and
unbiassed feedback and reckoned he
was the best person to give us what
we wanted to hear, so that our readers
(you) could decide for yourself.
These are basically his thoughts on the
matter.
Are we going ‘overboard’ to peddle
unsold high-end properties with stamp
duties waivers?
(Would the HOC benefit the Rakyat?)
We saw an initiative last year by the
government called the Home Ownership
Campaign (HOC) that was launched to
help Malaysians own homes. Based on
the HOC, there were some waivers and
discounts that participating developers
needed to abide to, for the benefit of
homebuyers.
With the Penjana, it was announced that
the HOC will be revived once again to
aid homebuyers during these troubled
times. How true is this?
Chang:
The Home Ownership Campaign (HOC)
is presumably to enable house buyers
to own a house or residential unit. The
incentive given by the government
under the Penjana economic recovery
plan is a waiver in the stamp duty
for residential units priced between
RM300,000 to RM2.5 mil but capped at
RM1 mil. Nice? Well, this is what Datuk
Chang had to say.
The real reason why most developers
were and are not able to sell their
houses is the pricing”, said Datuk Chang
Kim Loon. He added that it is still very
difficult to understand why taxpayers’
money is being “sacrificed” to facilitate
the niche market buyers and for the
benefit of the housing developers.
And that is exactly what is being done
here. How else do you explain the
fact that the government is waiving
stamp duties for the transaction?
Less collection of such fees means
government expenditure is being paid
from other tax sources.
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