Despite the anticipation of the upcoming festival, motorists admit that it costs quite a bit just for them to park their vehicles.
Private car parks have taken advantage of the Raya shopping spree knowing that thousands of road users would be out and about. Most of these car parks are open space areas where cars can be seen cramped up.
According to a local news portal, most of these car parks are filled with huge potholes that contain rainwater and are hard to notice, thus damaging the vehicles. The safety of these vehicles is not guaranteed as there are too many cars parked close to each other, which makes the parking charges absurd.
The charging rate for a single entry was just about RM8 to RM10 a week ago, but it is currently increased between RM15 and RM20.
Hamidi Husin, a 51-year-old private employee, claimed that the parking fee rate of between RM15 and RM20 is excessive for a short period of time as some people would want to just run a quick errand.
Another citizen claimed that given the parking lot’s lack of a roof and the unevenness of the road, the fee charged might be a bit exorbitant.
Based on a report by Sinar Harian, a lawyer, Khairul Naim Rafidi, claimed that the Local Government Act of 1976 serves as the fundamental source of authority for private car parking zones in the capital (Act 171).
He clarified that Act 171 gives the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) the authority to enact a bylaw.
According to this law, anyone who wants to run a private parking lot needs to have a valid license. The mayor has sole decision over whether to grant the license.
There are a number of actions the government can take to address this issue, including requiring license holders of private vehicle parking places to pay the charges set by the mayor.
Khairul, who is also the Head of the Law Bureau of Angkatan Muda Keadilan (AMK) Selangor added that the people should not be burdened with costs like this.
In addition, he said, among the steps that DBKL can implement is to hold a discussion session with all license holders to determine a reasonable charge.
