Increase to hinge on next month’s water bill
The Star 1/11/2006

PETALING JAYA: Businessmen involved in industries that use lots of water will wait for next month's water bill before deciding whether or not to raise prices.

“There might be an increase, but I think we will wait for next month's water bill to see how much more it'll be,” car wash supervisor Teh Leong Ket, 47, said yesterday.

“Up to 17.6% increase is quite high, as we can spend RM600 a month on water.”

He added, however, it would be up to his managers to decide whether there would be an increase in price.

“Right now we charge RM12 for a wash and vacuum for a normal saloon car. Who knows? It might go up to RM13 a car,” he said.

Hair salon creative director May Foong said it was hard to tell now if there would be an increase in charges.

“Our water bill can reach up to RM600 a month. But I think it's a normal reaction for salons to raise their prices a little if the water tariff goes up,” she said.

Restaurant operator Susan Beh, 31, however, said that she would try to absorb the increase.

“We won't be increasing our food prices at the moment. Assuming that the increase for restaurants is RM7.50 a day, it should be about RM195 a month for us,” she noted for restaurants that shut one day a week.

“That should still be fine, but we'll have to save water where we can and cut down on other costs.”

Ken Damansara Condominium Pre-management Cooperation chairman Ng Hean Hing said the water tariff increase was fair, but added that the quality must be improved.

He also welcomed the state government's move to enable those living in high rise residential units to be billed based on residential rates rather than commercial rates.

“It is good news that Syabas can install individual meters for us to reduce the rate we are paying,” he said.

MTUC president Syed Sharir Syed Mahmud said the Selangor government was “naive” if it actually believes that the increase in water tariffs would not significantly impact the lives of consumers.

“They are arguing that domestic consumers will not be affected much as the increase only affects those who use more than 20 cubic metres of water a month, but they fail to take into account that the consumers will face higher costs everywhere else like at the laundry outlet or eateries,” he said.

He said the new tariffs also did not make sense as there had been no significant improvement in efficiency in supplying water since privatisation that could justify the increase.