JOHOR BARU: Plans to have a standardised parking coupon system for all local councils in the state are in the pipeline but the Johor government wants further studies to be conducted before it is implemented.

State Housing and Local Government committee chairman Datuk Abd Latif Bandi said the mechanisms need to be worked out.

“This includes the local councils’ income such as assessment tax and other matters as any decicion taken must benefit all parties.

“If we simply come up with a system that uses only one type of parking coupon, it will affect some local councils incomes.

“It is also not fair to them to suffer losses in such a way,” he said.

He said the public should also buy the parking coupons as needed and not waste money buying more than necessary.

“In the previous executive council meeting, it was agreed that every local council sticks to the existing coupon parking system so that they could earn more revenue.

“Parking coupon agents who have extra coupons for the previous parking system should claim their money from the concession company involved and not from the local councils.

“The company should not have sold the tickets for periods beyond their given time frame as stated in their contracts,” he said.

Abd Latif said this in response to Skudai assemblyman Dr Boo Cheng Hau who recently sent a memorandum to the Johor Mentri Besar’s office suggesting for the government to implement the same type of parking coupon for all local councils under Zone B to avoid public confusion as they need to purchase different coupons for different areas.

The seven local councils under Zone B are Mersing, Kota Tinggi, Johor Baru, Johor Baru Central, Kulai, Simpang Renggam and Kluang.

He was commenting on the new parking coupon system implemented in several local councils since May 1.

He said the respective local councils can earn extra revenue by handling the parking system on their own.

“The new coupons also caused dissatisfaction among the agents who had bought the old coupons in bulk but could not sell them anymore due to the new implementation,” he said, adding that many agents had complained about losses to him.

He added that it is such a waste for the public, especially the agents, to just throw away the old coupons.