The increase in assessment fees to the city council is part of an adjustment exercise to help raise revenue for key council projects.
CHANT legal adviser Yan Lee said Penang should refer to how council fees are calculated in developed countries, where lower fees are charged to owners who live on their own property.
He suggested separate fees for properties that are rented out, left vacant, used for Airbnb or put to commercial use.
“Ideally, owner-occupied properties should be charged less. The same goes for those who are disabled or in the B40 (low-income) group,” he said in a press conference here.
Assessment fees, meanwhile, could be higher for commercial and industrial properties as they are business entities, he added.
He said commercial properties such as restaurants should be charged more as they produce more rubbish to be cleared by city councils and require frequent services such as regular health inspections.
He also suggested that quit rent or land taxes should have commissions based on how the land is used.
“The chief minister has said the increase will be RM10 to RM30, but it is still a significant increase for some,” he said.
Penang recently announced that it would review its council assessment rates last set in 2005, which saw rates spike by two or three times for all properties in the state.
A new annual value of properties and assessment rates has been set in areas under the jurisdiction of the Penang island and Seberang Perai city councils for 2020.
A total of 322,549 properties on the island and another 327,401 in Seberang Perai will be affected, with assessment fees expected to rise by between 50% and 98%.
The proposed assessment rates for 16 out of 17 property categories are lower than the current rates, which have been unchanged since January 2005.
The one category which sees no change in rates is that covering association and clan buildings, which will remain at 7%. The landed property rates for next year are at a proposed 6% compared with the current 9.3%.
As for apartments and condominiums, the proposed rates are at 5.8% compared with the current 8.5%. For low-cost and low-medium cost apartments, the assessment rate next year will be 5%, compared with the current 7.5%.
Despite the lower rates, owners would have to pay higher assessments than usual as annual rental rates have risen over the past 15 years.