THE Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) has unveiled its key priorities for the 2025 Budget, focusing on 10 core areas to enhance the city’s sustainability and liveability.
MBSP mayor Datuk Baderul Amin Abdul Hamid said the budget, themed ‘Seberang Perai as a sustainable city’, was developed using the Gender Responsive and Participatory Budgeting (GRPB) approach.
“Under the 2025 Budget, MBSP places an emphasis on improving MBSP services, through priority-based budgeting.
“A town hall session regarding the 2025 Budget was held with MBSP councillors on May 13 this year. The 2025 Budget survey was also conducted online on the MBSP website from March 1 to March 31, 2024.
“The total number of respondents who have filled in the survey is 2,798 people, of which 2,000 (71.5%) are male respondents and 798 (28.5%) are female respondents.
“A total of 214 suggestions from Seberang Perai residents and 83 suggestions from City councillors have been obtained to improve the budget,” Baderul said after chairing a full council meeting where he presented the Budget 2025 at the MBSP headquarters building in Bandar Perda, Bukit Mertajam recently.
Baderul highlighted the first core priority is ensuring a green development and clean environment. This is accorded the highest allocation of RM150.56 million.
“The second core priority is creating a resilient and livable city. It gets the second-highest allocation of RM99.01 million.
“The third core priority focuses on creating a safe and conducive environment. It gets the third-highest allocation of RM47.52 million.
“As for the fourth core priority, it is to ensure inclusive and equitable urban development. It gets an allocation of RM34.48 million.
“Subsequent core priorities are competitive urban economy (RM24.66mil), quality facilities and infrastructure (RM21.89mil) and implementation of new technology (RM14.89mil).
“Other core priorities are the healthy lifestyle (RM13.18mil), community involvement (RM6.87mil) and strengthening culture and heritage (RM3.01mil),” he said.
Baderul mentioned that MBSP’s projected expenses for 2025 amount to RM416.075 million against an estimated revenue of RM367.285 million. This may result in a deficit budget of RM48.790 million for the upcoming year.
He said the components of the total estimated revenue collection (RM367.285 million) include tax revenue (RM258.291 million), non-tax revenue (RM97.494 million) and non-revenue receipts (RM11.50 million).
He added that the deficit budget underlines the huge responsibility that MBSP bears in serving the Seberang Perai community and promoting development on the mainland.
However, he said MBSP remains committed to controlling the deficit through prudent financial management, emphasising principles such as maximising value for expenditure, process automation and efficient financial management without compromising service quality.
According to Baderul, MBSP has allocated RM1.4 million for the maintenance of public markets and food complexes, electricity bills (RM2.7mil), water bills (RM2.19mil) and Indah Water Konsortium bills (RM390,000).
He also said RM300,000 had been allocated for road repairs under the jurisdiction of the city council to improve mobility and connectivity.
“MBSP also has allocated RM1.5 million to instal closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) and another RM1.8 million for CCTVs maintenance across Seberang Perai.
“The city council also has allocated RM2 million for the maintenance of all streetlights under MBSP in Seberang Perai and another RM15.6 million allocation for streetlights bills under the city council.
“We will also allocate RM2.25 million to upgrade several public recreational areas, including Vision Park in Kepala Batas, Taman Penaga Permai and Taman Pantai in Butterworth, Taman Rekreasi Ampang Jajar and Taman Perpaduan in central Seberang Perai district and also Taman Widuri and Taman Tambun Jaya in south Seberang Perai district.
“Other allocations include tipping fees for waste disposal at Pulau Burong (RM9mil), waste transfer and transport at Ampang Jajar (RM7.5mil), loan repayments and interest for solid waste management and public cleaning (RM5.63mil), landscaping projects (RM1.5mil), upgrading project of Taman Pantai in Butterworth (RM300,000), monsoon drain and water reservoir maintenance (RM8.5 million), maintenance of pump houses and flood control operation centres (RM1.35 million) and ex-gratia payment to MBSP employees involved in accidents while on duty (RM200,000),” he said.
For more details and a full list of the budget, the public can go to MBSP’s official website at https://www.mbsp.gov.my/ .
Story by Riadz Akmal
Pix by Ahmad Adil Muhamad