Azmin Ali defends move in granting splash operating licence

Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali today defended his action in issuing an operating licence to Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash) as stipulated in the Selangor water industry restructuring master agreement.

He said the operating licence or water extradition licence was granted in accordance with the agreement that gave Splash a period of one year to decide on the buyout plan, subsequent to the master agreement.

He said that apart from Splash, three other water operators, namely Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB) and Konsortium ABASS Sdn Bhd (ABASS) were also granted similar licences.

"For now, since Splash has been given a period of up to one year (to decide on the acquisition) after the master agreement is signed, the state government may revoke the licence as its water production right is for a year," he told reporters here.

Mohamed Azmin was responding to an allegation by former Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim on Friday that the issuance of the licence by Mohamed Azmin was contrary to the effort to make the people of Selangor the absolute owners of the water industry once the restructuring was completed.

Abdul Khalid also claimed that the equity takeover of the four concessionaire companies should not exceed RM9.65 billion as previously agreed and he feared that the steps taken by Azmin would result in the people of

Selangor having to pay more.

The former menteri besar made the statement following the Selangor government's decision not to continue with negotiations on the water industry restructuring plan with the federal government on March 9.

In fact, Abdul Khalid said the Selangor government's failure to proceed with the water industry restructuring agreement would result in the four concessionaire companies making unreasonable profits by charging higher water tariff due to the biased privatisation agreement.

In another development, when asked about the status of the construction of the Kinrara-Damansara (Kidex) Highway which was cancelled on Feb 16, Mohamed Azmin said he would hold talks with Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof this week in connection with any infrastructure development in the state.

He said the construction of highways was not the solution to problems of traffic congestion but, instead, people should be encouraged to use public transport.

In this regard, he said, the state government would give full cooperation to the agency concerned in developing public transportation in the state to upgrade as well as improve transport facilities in future.

"We are preparing a master plan to improve public transport facilities in the state, which will include 'feeder bus' services in an effort to solve the traffic problems," he said.