SEREMBAN: A re-evaluation exercise of all properties in Negri Sembilan will be carried out to determine the accurate assessment of the tax amount, says state local government development committee chairman J. Arul Kumar.

Arul, who also holds the housing and transport committee portfolios, said all seven local councils in the state had been instructed to do so, as the last time a re-evaluation exercise was done was in 1983.

"We will be doing the re-evaluation exercise, but there will be no increase in assessment rates for now.

"The state government has decided to do this as it has been decades since it was last done," he told reporters at his office at Wisma Negri here on Tuesday (June 25).

Arul said the Seremban City Council, which has some 350,000 properties under its jurisdiction, has already engaged several vendors to carry out the exercise.

He said the exercise would take between two and three years to complete.

He said that since no re-evaluation exercise had been carried out in the state for a long time, the assessment tax in Negri Sembilan was much lower than in neighbouring states.

Arul said local councils relied heavily on assessment tax to fund its operations and development of areas under their jurisdiction.

Citing an example, he said the city council collected some RM240mil in assessment tax annually, but between 80% and 90% of the amount goes to its operating and other expenditures.

"There is very little left for development as their only revenue comes from assessment tax," he said.

On a separate matter, Arul said 1,125 premises in the Nilai 3 Industrial Area, Taman Semarak 2 Light Industrial Area and Nilai Inland Port (Nilai 7) will have to pay more in assessment from next month.

"The premises, including workshops and small industries, were previously misclassified as commercial areas when they are actually industrial areas."

"So, the city council has now corrected the error, and the property owners will have to pay more from now on," he said, adding that the owners will not be charged arrears as the local council made the error.

Arul said property owners will have to pay between 200% to 300% more with the change in status.

"However, the value of their properties would also be enhanced since they now fell under the industrial category," he said, adding that the council had conducted several sessions with the property owners before increasing the assessment tax.