State executive councillor Jagdeep Singh Deo said the Penang Smart Parking (PSP) app was supposed to be up and running again by 11am today, but suffered intermittent service outages.
Yesterday, motorists took to Facebook to complain after failing to log into their PSP account, with some reporting a “zero balance” in their e-wallets there.
In a Facebook posting, the PSP operators clarified that there was a service outage and the matter was being fixed.
In response, the mayors of both city councils in Penang said those who had paid for parking would be reimbursed, while any fines related to non-payment of parking fees would be cancelled.
“We hope the PSP would stabilise. We are monitoring the situation and will issue a statement once the PSP is up again.
“In the meantime, the mayors of Penang Island and Seberang Perai have written to the PSP operators demanding an explanation,” Jagdeep told a press conference at Komtar today.
He said the operators had said there was no need to pay for parking yesterday. The same could be said about the situation today since the system was still down, he added.
HeiTech Padu Bhd manages 36,000 of the state’s local council parking lots.
According to a filing with Bursa, the company was given a 65:35 profit sharing for the first five years (35% to the councils) and subsequently 60:40 in the final two years. It signed a seven-year concession with the two councils in May 2019.
HeiTech had said it was spending RM115 million to digitalise the parking management in Penang as part of a private finance initiative.
The parking rate is 80 sen an hour for the island and 40 sen an hour in Seberang Perai.
In a statement this evening, Jagdeep said motorists would not have to pay for parking at council lots until Friday (Sept 4) as the PSP would remain under maintenance mode.
He reminded motorists that while the city councils would not fine those who did not pay their parking fares, other offences such as parking out of the box, illegal parking and obstructing traffic on council roads would still attract a fine.
With the latest statement, it would mean that motorists would have to pay for parking only from Saturday.
The state collects parking fees from 9am to 6pm from Monday to Saturday.