SEREMBAN: The Negeri Sembilan state government will focus on raising the non-tax revenue to balance its tax revenue collection to further strengthen the state’s income, said Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun.
He said based on its analysis and the state’s current economic position, there are several potential areas to raise revenue collection including the introduction of service charges to promote economic sustainability and to transform water as a commodity, he said.
Aminuddin said for this purpose, the ecosystem service fee will be reviewed to cover the cost of maintaining public facilities and to improve forest and biodiversity preservation and conservation programmes.
“The Negeri Sembilan Forestry Department has received approval to charge a conservation fee for selected eco forest parks, which is RM3.00 for citizens and RM6.00 for non-citizens, and a waiver for children and the elderly.
“The state’s legal adviser is currently gazetting the conservation fee before its collection,“ he said in response to Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan’s (BN-Rantau) question posed by Datuk Zaifulbahri Idris (BN-Chembong) on the measures and areas of focus to raise new sources of revenue for the state government at the Negeri Sembilan Legislative Assembly.
Aminuddin also said the state’s Water Regulatory Authority (BKSA) has revised the seawater levy rate from one sen per cubic metre to three and the state authorities have approved the increase.
Through this new rate, BKSA can raise revenue by about RM46 million per year, in addition to other structural changes in water tariffs by state water authorities effective Jan 1.
Universities use seawater for experiments and Tenaga Nasional Bhd uses it for power generation.
Meanwhile, Aminuddin said the estimated mineral resource reserves in Negeri Sembilan is 3,573.10 million metric tonnes with one of them being non-radioactive rare earth elements which is as much as 200,000 metric tonnes.
In addition, Aminuddin said the state’s Land and Mines director and the district and land offices were budgeted to collect RM315.55 million in land revenue, comprising RM151.71 million under tax revenue and RM163.84 million under non-tax revenue tax this year.
