Chow stands by state officers in quit rent row with Guan Eng

2026-03-19 - 07:01

Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow rejected Lim Guan Eng’s accusation of not being on the ground often enough, saying he regularly makes visits across the state. GEORGE TOWN: Penang chief minister Chow Kon Yeow has defended the data and advice from state officers on the controversial quit rent issue, saying he trusts their work. He was responding to criticism from Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng, who urged him to look into the matter personally and questioned the reliability of information provided by officers from the land and mines office. Speaking to reporters in Komtar, Chow dismissed the criticism, saying: “That is his interpretation (of the situation), which is totally wrong.” He said mistakes, if any, would be rectified, and that more than 2,000 appeals on quit rent matters had been received, with over 500 already decided and the remainder to be reviewed after verification. Chow also rejected Lim’s argument that the state could not carry out measures not listed in Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) 2023 election manifesto for Penang. “A manifesto does not prevent a government from pursuing measures not listed in it,” he said, adding that new steps could be introduced according to the circumstances. Yesterday, Lim said Chow had openly admitted that the new quit rent calculation system had caused rate increases ranging from hundreds- to thousands-fold. He also asked how such steep hikes could be justified when they were not mentioned in PH’s election manifesto for Penang in 2023. Chow rejected Lim’s claim that he was not on the ground often enough, saying he regularly made visits across the state and had not received many direct complaints about quit rent during his recent visits. “Don’t worry, I’m always on the ground. Perhaps they didn’t want to highlight it to me. I did not see any issues about quit rent raised during my visits throughout Ramadan across all of Penang’s districts. “Not that the people don’t have issues, but perhaps they did not highlight them to me. Don’t worry, we will continue reviewing appeals from the public,” he said. Task force to prepare PIFC white paper, blueprint Chow also said that a special task force had been set up to prepare a white paper and blueprint on the state government’s proposal to establish the Penang International Financial Centre, as part of efforts to turn Penang into a technology and finance hub. The task force will be chaired by Chow, with the state secretary as deputy chairman, and include state officials, agencies and private sector representatives. An international consulting firm will be appointed to assist in preparing the documents, which are targeted for submission to the finance ministry by the third quarter of this year. Chow said recent capital outflows from Dubai and other parts of the Middle East had opened up opportunities for safer investment destinations in Asia. He said three Penang-based companies had already responded to an earlier expression of interest exercise, although the initiative would not be limited to them and other parties could still be involved later.