GEORGE TOWN, March 22 – The real value of the bungalow at Jalan Pinhorn bought by Lim Guan Eng is RM4.27 million and this was contained in the valuation notice for real estate ownership transfer of the Inland Revenue Board to the Penang chief minister last August.
Penang UMNO Youth had obtained a copy of the notice dated Aug 27, 2015 which stated that Lim had to pay stamp duty of RM122,100 based on the market value of the house which was RM4.27 million. Penang UMNO Youth head Rafizal Abdul Rahim showed a copy of the notice to reporters before lodging a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), here yesterday regarding the issue on the purchase of the bungalow.
On Sunday, Lim when taking reporters on a visit to his home, was reported as saying that he did not know the market value of the double-storey bungalow which he bought for RM2.8 million because he was not a real estate agent. Rafizal said it was illogical that the DAP secretary-general did not know the real market value of the house that he bought.
“(It is) impossible that he did not know the ‘market price’. Usually, we will check first before we buy. Buying a house is a real big issue. We must know how much is the market value,” he said. The purchase of the bungalow by the Penang chief minister became a controversy when Tasek Gelugor Member of Parliament Datuk Shabudin Yahaya raised the issue at the Parliament sitting last Thursday.
Shabudin, who is Chairman of the Penang Regional Development Authority (Perda), had also asked the Valuation and Property Services Department to make a valuation on the property. Shabudin also asked the MACC to investigate the sale of several plots of land in Penang which were originally said to be allocated for the building of houses under the Hardcore Poor Housing Project (PPRT).
Rafizal said that Penang UMNO Youth, in its report, had asked the MACC to investigate whether there was a link between the purchase of the bungalow and the sale of state land in Taman Manggis, here. Meanwhile in KOTA BAHARU, PAS vice-president Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said the MACC should investigate Lim on the purchase of the bungalow. He said this was because a report had been lodged by certain quarters with the MACC on the case, which he preceived as casting doubts on the purchase.
