Water Restructuring Supplementary Agreement Signed

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Government and Selangor State Government today signed the Supplementary Agreement to the Master Agreement on the Restructuring of the Water Services Industry for Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin witnessed the signing of the agreement involving the federal government, Selangor state government, Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB) and Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor).

The signatories have 60 days to fulfill the Condition Precedents (CPs) in the master agreement.

When the CPs have been fulfilled, the master agreement and Sale and Purchase of Puncak Niaga Holdings Berhad (PNHB) Shares would be enforced to enable Air Selangor to take over Puncak Niaga (M) Sdn Bhd and Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (SYABAS).

With this, the restructuring of the water supply industry in the state of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya has been finalised as agreed in the master agreement.

The supplementary agreement was signed by Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA) secretary-general Datuk Loo Took Gee, Selangor state secretary Datuk Mohamed Khusrin Munawi, Pengurusan Air Selangor chief executive officer (CEO) Suhaimi Kamaral Zaman and PAAB CEO Datuk Ahmad Faizal Abdul Rahman.

Other witnesses at the signing ceremony included Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili and Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The master agreement was signed on Sept 12 last year between the federal government, Selangor government, PAAB and Air Selangor.

Under the master agreement, the federal government would allocate RM2 billion for the Selangor government to take over the equities of the concessionaires.

The federal government through PAAB has absorbed the liabilities of the water concession companies totalling RM7.694 billion. In return for the RM2 billion and RM7.694 billion, the Selangor government must hand over the water assets to PAAB.

These assets would be leased out again by PAAB to Air Selangor based on 'lease rental' for a period of 40 years, as what is being done in the restructuring of the water supply industry in other states.

Nevertheless, the agreement has not been enforced till now as certain CPs in the master agreement have not been fulfilled.

Aside from that, the sale and purchase agreement signed on Nov 11, 2014 for PNHB shares has not been enforced as Air Selangor has not paid for the SYABAS and PNSB equities it bought.

Air Selangor will only make the payment after receiving the funds from PAAB. On the other hand, PAAB will only release the funds after Air Selangor fulfills all the CPs in the master agreement. - Bernama