Putrajaya managed to obtain a substantial additional payment from the buyers of 16 land parcels sold by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) during the previous administration, reported The Star.
“We were able to receive an additional RM149 million as the companies had previously bought the land at a lower price that did not benefit the government. These 16 were part of the 23 land transactions spanning 104ha that were subjected to further scrutiny by the Negotiations Task Force,” said Federal Territories (FT) Minister Khalid Samad.
“The government was also able to get back 5ha of land valued at RM113.8 million, as well as RM6 million in CSR donations.”
He said this on Tuesday (9 Oct) when announcing the results of the investigation on the sale of 23 land parcels that was conducted by the Task Force, which consisted of DBKL, FT Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office.
“Of these 23 land transactions under investigations, 16 transactions have been successfully resolved and completed. Three more require re-evaluation under the Valuation and Property Services Department (JPPH), while one will involve an out-of-court settlement.”
“We were unable to resolve three transactions, as the buyers refused to negotiate with us,” he said.
Khalid noted that the three pieces of land are situated in Kepong and Seputeh. After JPPH finishes its evaluation of these deal, the investigation by the task force will be completed.
He explained that the task force’s probe only looked into the commercial aspect of the sales to check if the properties were divested at a fair price to the government and would not lead to losses in DBKL.
“The investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) are a different exercise to check for elements of corruption.”
Of the overall 97 land deals probed by the task force, 43 had been allowed to continue as their terms were considered fair or favourable to DBKL.
“Meanwhile, DBKL will get back a total of 21.85ha of land, after some buyers agreed to surrender them,” Khalid said, adding that city hall will reimburse RM18.1 million to these buyers.
“There is no rush to sell or develop the 21.85ha of land. We will conduct a study to evaluate their feasibility for PPR and public housing.”
Finally, two land deals would be taken to court, as they are regarded as unfavourable to DBKL.
“From a legal viewpoint, the buyers have grounds to object based on the agreements they signed with DBKL. But we hope the courts will take all factors into consideration. DBKL is willing to buy the land back at the price the contractor bought it for.”
“For example, one piece of land valued at RM120 million was sold at RM40 million, so we will only buy it back at RM40 million.”
Image sourced from The Star Online
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
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