Real Property Gains Tax and an economist

 Well, if you think that it look like a propaganda, I would not correct  your impression.

For the past few days (even weeks), there have been a flurry of  'news' coming from economist and accountants in support of higher taxes, either through GST or RPGT (Real Property Gains Tax). You can read them and the GST here , here, and the bubble here.

Today the Star produced an article where an economist is seen to be favouring and pushing for higher RPGT. Meaning lets tax the people more. You can read the article here.

1. A visiting lecturer of the Asia-Europe Institute, University Malaya, Dr Jorah Ramlan said the RGPT increase could be one way for the country to increase revenue. 
"There is serious concern regarding the staggering prices of real estate in the country in recent years.

One thing he got right was that RPGT will increase the government's revenue. No brainer there. But as we have discussed earlier, in this context, revenue is not the issue. The issue is can we trust the government with more money?

2. "Increasing the RGPT will not affect the construction sector, since there will always be a need for housing development in a growing population.

RPGT basic - it affects second hand sale of properties, not applicable to new development. Sale of new developments are not affected by RPGT. If the RPGT causes price to increase (because now sellers may want to compensate for the extra tax the government is taking), that will make it worse for new housebuyers.

3. On top of that, have these people ever thought that instead of curbing price increase, RPGT could backfire by feeding into the higher prices for houses.

Those who intend to sell their houses next year could do three things:

• One, sell the house and pay the extra RPGT; 
• two, sell the house at a higher price so that net-net you will get the same with the extra tax (remember, RPGT is taxed on profits, not the sale price); In this case, this would push up the prices of second-hand houses. Exactly the OPPOSITE of what they intend to achieve (curbing price increase).
• and three, wait to sell the year after where the RPGT would be lower for him. In this third case, that will restrict the supply of houses available for sale. Under the laws of supply and demand, it could very well increase the prices of houses in the market.

Therefore, in my view, RPGT is not the way to address possible property bubble. The key is to reign in the speculative demand for houses which is being fueled by the financing banks and at the same time prevent any drastic action that could burst the bubble.

GST, Income Tax and the accountants

When I completed  my (then) SRP, I pondered what to do next? I chose Accounts stream despite being eligible for the science stream. Why? I love the calculations.  After My SPM I had to make another decision , the degree course. I chose Accounting & Finance. Why? Back then, being the firstborn, you wanna get a job more than anything and in 1990, the buzz was for accountants. Hence there I was, bundled up into an air plane and for the next 5 years I had to learn the ways of the accountant.

What happened at the end? Well I graduated and vowed never will I become an Accountant? Why? I like the maths, but could not seem to agree on the principles and the strict adherence to the same.

13 years on, I am glad I made that move.

Don't get me wrong. There is absolutely noting wrong about accountants. They are (or rather were) almost beyond reproach, until Enron and Goldman-Sach showed us otherwise. They are still considered a bunch of intelligent number crunchers, an elite group.

But I just find it that sometimes they rely too much in the numbers.

Yesterdays, the the newspaper, the top achelons of the accounting group in Malaysia came out, calling to hasten the implementation of the GST in Malaysia.  Citing that it is the only cure for our malaise of continuous government deficit and in impending doom of the Fitch rating downgrade.

Firstly the government deficit is a two way street, namely Income and Expenditure; the street has a nasty back-alley called "Leakages and Corruptions". It baffles me when the accountants keeps harping about the income side of the street, without touching on expenditure and the back-alley of leakages (which is a pretty wide alley in our case). The silence was indeed deafening.

As I have said it before, I don't mind giving up my portion of subsidy or paying higher tax IF the government has done all they can to be efficient and close the back-alley of leakages. I had that conversation with the taxi driver this morning and the nice man shared the same view. He sees the logic behind it: If the government have shown they have done all it can do on its part, then we will gladly give up what we have for the country. It is not rocket science.

And as I do get it. I get that GST is a much better and fairer way of taxing the wealth/income of the population. GST should be accompanied by a reduction of the overall income tax on the individuals. And that would be great news to me and  other tax paying citizens. Apparently our income tax system is not that efficient, resulting in a lot of people able to evade paying tax (which is one of the reason they are calling for the implementation of the GST). Some of us are only getting a little of seventy cents to very dollar we earn. It is a heartache we gladly bear for the benefit of the country. We do get that.

The problem is that you guys don't get it when we talk about better expenditure management and actually addressing the AG's report about leakages.

Instead what we see is a systematic (typical) news reports from so called professional bodies expounding the virtues of GST and how it would be the saviour of our impending woes. Bullshit.

Gone are the days where we, the people, would follow blindly the words of the professionals. Especially after Enron and the likes. We know what are in it for you guys.

I am sure you accountants are independent in their views, but imagine this. GST is a new taxation system so there will be shitloads of new taxation consultation jobs. Wohoo more income.

We also know that a lot of government bodies and all GLC needs an auditors - you gotta manage the relationship there.

We get that and we therefore understand why you might be saying so. But that still does not make it right and deep down I think you know it too.

Do you feel the bubble Malaysia?

So now there is an analyst way over in Ney York, 'predicting' a 'popping' of the Malaysian bubble. I will make my best to see the sense in his analysis and see if it makes sense...sensisible...no? Anyway, here goes.

1. The China Effect

Jesse Colombo said:
"Malaysia’s bubble will most likely pop when China’s economic bubble pops and/or as global and local interest rates continue to rise, which are what caused the country’s credit and asset bubble in the first place," he wrote in the Forbes article headlined "Malaise Is Ahead For Malaysia's Bubble Economy".

I say:
If and when China pops, almost the whole world would be popping like a fart after a can of baked beans. It is not just Malaysia, everyone, including the mighty US. So this piece of information is a no-brainer and adds no value because the idea of predicting a calamity in a particular country is so that you could exit from investing the country and invest in another. That is useless if all the other country would be popping cans too.

2. Like or worse than the 1997 crisis

He said:
"As I’ve been saying even before this summer’s EM panic, I expect the ultimate popping of the emerging markets bubble to cause another crisis that is similar to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, and there is a strong chance that it will be even worse this time due to the fact that more countries are involved (Latin America, China, and Africa), and because the global economy is in a far weaker state now than it was during the heady days of the late-1990s," he said.

I say:
Again I say that if the popping is caused by China bursting, it should be epidemic. However, the effect on Malaysia, in my view would be different from 1997. Granted, the ringgit is now floated, but it is still quite 'managed' and i think you still cannot trade ringgit overseas. And we have showed the world that of the movement is unjustified, we could slap back the capital control and fixed the ringgit. Despite all the bruhaha and protest as well as all the so-called economic justifications against fixing one's currency, we have showed the world it worked and we have got the guts to do it ( well i hope we still do).

Household debt is high, which is indeed worrying whether you are in a bubble or not. It would fuel a financial crisis only if people lose the capacity to pay those debt. And that can only happen if people lose their jobs or in the case of speculators, could not liquidate their speculative assets (like houses or shares etc). Malaysia enjoys almost full employment and being an exporting nation, our production depends on the world economy as a whole. Therefore, if the world stops buying, then our factories will shut down and our workers don't get paid and thus cannot pay the loan. But if the world stops buying, it is not a Malaysian problem, it is a global problem, Malaysia included.

I am not saying there is no bubble. A bubble is basically when the 'price' is way above the fundamental value. In any growing economy, you would want to get a higher price than your value; meaning there will always be a buffer between your wealth and your value.

Wealth, as measured via GDP and stock indices are prices. And prices only sometimes reflects the valuation. I always say this: Valuation is a perception while price is the reality. People try to justify and claim that prices will always reflect the true value in an efficient economy / market, but guess what? There is no fully efficient market.

And what more, prices are subject to other factors which is absent from valuation. Prices is subject to greed, momentum, herd, ignorance and a host of other behavioral tendencies.  So what if your country does not have a bubble, meaning if the GDP or index is well below the fundamental value of your economy; if the downward price momentum hits you, or speculative traders cornered your currency due to greed, your wealth or 'prices' will go down. Yeah, you had no bubble to begin with, but you end up in much worse place.

Therefore, to not have a bubble is unrealistic. To lament on the the prospect of a burst bubble is pathetic. To plan for a price correction is opportunistic. And opportunistic people make lots of  money...

Trying to make sense of our country's debt and downgrade threat

I always believe that finance and economics, no matter how complex it might be, must makes sense - common sense. So when I stumbled upon an article from Bloomberg about Malaysia, debt ceiling, its rating and 1MDB (I post the article at the end of this blog), I found myself trying to make sense of certain issues.

First let's start which what I understand, things that make sense first.

1. Rating is important if you (issuer/borrower/Government/1MDB) have an outstanding floating rate loan. Rating is an indication of riskiness hence the lower the rating the more interest you would need to pay on your debt.
2. If you have issued fixed rate bond, then rating does not really matter because your interest payment is fixed.
3. If you plan to borrow some more, then rating matters because lower rating will cause you to pay/agree to pay  more on your future debt in terms of interest/coupon.
4. If you are a TRADER of bonds (for example institutions that bought and are holding the 1MDB bonds from Goldman Sachs), rating matters because if the rating of any bond that you are holding goes down, the value and price of that bond will go down. That means you would incur a loss in the value of the bond (unless you are holding to maturity). In this case, rating matters to the Issuer/Borrower if he plans to borrow some more by issuing debt to the Traders. If the existing rating goes down, and the traders LOSES money on the existing bonds, they might not be so keen to buy the new bonds or asks for much higher interest payment for the new bonds that the issuer plans to issue.

Now to the part which I cannot make sense:

1. Fitch is threatening to lower the Government's debt rating because of, amongst others, high debt to GDP ratio. Why we have high debt? Well it is because the government have been running on deficits since 1998. Deficit, which happens when the government spends more than it earns, would cause the government to borrow. In a growth situation this is perfectly fine as the deficit is to finance growth which will later cause the economy to grow, increase tax income and other government revenues and then we have a surplus.

2. But what if the debt is not because of the income? What if the deficit is mainly because of mismanagement, leakages and corruption? The recent AG's report has plenty on that, for years! If that is the case, trying to reduce deficit by raising revenue (taxes and such) will be like "mencurah air ke daun keladi"...kerja sia sia. If we raise revenue without plugging the hole first, we will just sink faster. It like speeding up a leaking boat, you will just let water in faster.

3. According to the PM, the rating should not really affect the government much as most of its debts are held locally by local institutions. That is true since most MGS (Malaysian Government Securities ) are in Ringgit and they are all mopped by our banks because we have so much liquidity. If that is the case, then why the adamant effort to stop the downgrade in rating; taking away subsidies and increasing taxes. I am for reduced subsidies but you got to show me you can manage the extra money first.

4. Coincidentally, 1MDB seems to have USD denominated bonds - USD6.5 billion of it. Being a 'sovereign fund' their bonds would be affected by rating movements if was a floating rate. If it is fixed rate, then the holders of its bonds would suffer losses if the rating goes south. (and on this note, I also cannot understand why borrow in USD when you are purchasing assets in ringgit? Why the currency risk?).

In the end, what really keeping me perplexed, puzzled and befuddled is are we doing all this risk-downgrade avoidance actions (subsidy cuts etc) to mainly save a  particular bond / issuer rather than the real economy as a whole? If that is the case, then we have to really think back on the strategy of affecting the whole to maintain a few.

But if we are looking at this downgrade threat as a mean to make our cash management better - then excellent! But we have to look at the leakages first, spending is a must, but leakages are not.

REPRODUCED FROM BLOOMBERG

Najib Sees Malaysia Escaping Fitch Rating Cut: Southeast Asia

By Barry Porter & Chong Pooi Koon - Oct 14, 2013 8:59 AM GMT+0800

Prime Minister Najib Razak said he believes that Malaysia can avoid a cut to its credit rating while the government will try its “level best” to prevent a breach of its self-imposed sovereign debt ceiling.
“We will manage it,” Najib said in an Oct. 11 interview in Putrajaya, the country’s administrative center near Kuala Lumpur. “We’re very closely monitoring how we manage our macro position as well as our fiscal and debt to make sure that we will not be downgraded.”

Enlarge image

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak speaks during a panel discussion at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on Oct. 7, 2013. Malaysia has run annual budget deficits every year starting in 1998. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

2:14

Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak talks about the prospects for the country's economic growth and government policies. He spoke Oct. 11 with Bloomberg News in Putrajaya, the country’s administrative center near Kuala Lumpur. (Source: Bloomberg)

Najib raised subsidized fuel prices for the first time since 2010 and said he’d delay some public projects after Fitch Ratings cut Malaysia’s credit outlook to negative in July, citing rising debt levels and a lack of budgetary reform. The country, which has a long-term foreign-currency denominated rating of A- at Fitch, has run annual budget deficits every year starting in 1998.
At 53.3 percent, Malaysia’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio is the highest among 12 emerging Asian markets after Sri Lanka, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Moody’s Investors Service said last month the budget gap may exceed Najib’s target of 4 percent of GDP this year and warned fiscal targets will become “increasingly out of reach” unless further measures are taken. Moody’s rates Malaysia government bonds A3 with a stable outlook.
The government will further cut state subsidies, broaden its tax base and manage spending “prudently,” said Najib, 60, who is also finance minister, without elaborating. Cabinet will meet before the 2014 budget is released Oct. 25 to decide if there’s enough public support to introduce a goods and services tax, he said.

Taxing Challenge

“We are quite positive on Malaysia,” Enrico Tanuwidjaja, a Singapore-based economist at Nomura Holdings Inc., said by phone yesterday. “They are on a fiscal consolidation path and they will boost the revenue base if the government can push through the GST in the coming budget. A sub-3 percent fiscal deficit could happen in 2016, if not in 2015 as per the official aim.”
The ringgit has fallen 4 percent this year, the fifth worst performer among 11 most traded Asian currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The currency could gain over time if the nation’s fundamentals remain strong, central bank Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said in an Oct. 12 interview with Bloomberg News in Washington.
“We believe that, over the medium term, yes, it should reflect underlying fundamentals, and if the underlying fundamentals remain strong, then over time it should be an appreciating trend,” said Zeti, predicting stronger economic growth in 2014.
The government earlier planned to introduce a 4 percent GST by 2011. It hasn’t said what the rate may be if it now goes ahead.

‘Level Best’

“We are one of the very, very few countries in the world which doesn’t have a GST,” said Najib, who was returned to power in a general election in May with a reduced majority as his coalition lost the popular vote for the first time. “But there are challenges. Anything to do with any new form of tax, like consumption tax in Japan, carbon tax in Australia, these are big issues that cannot be easily decided.”
The government will “try our level best” not to go beyond its debt ceiling of 55 percent of GDP, said Najib, a U.K.- educated industrial economics graduate. If Malaysia can achieve 5 to 6 percent GDP growth “we should be able to manage the debt ceiling,” he said. “The weakening external global economy is of concern to us.”
Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy withstood faltering overseas demand in the past year as Najib gave handouts to voters and boosted investment ahead of the May vote. GDP expanded more than 4 percent in each of the 15 quarters through June 2013.

State Guarantees

“This year we should be able to get somewhere between 4 to 5 percent” growth, the prime minister said. “I think probably slightly beyond 4.5 percent. That’s the best estimate that we have currently.”
With state guarantees added to public debt the government’s credit exposure was 70.2 percent of GDP as of the end of the second quarter, up from 66.6 percent a year earlier, Bank of America Corp said in a report on Sept. 17.
“It’s not so much the level of debt, it’s the ability to pay,” said Najib. “Fortunately, most of our debts are long-term debts and are domestic debts, so we think we will be able to manage it.”
1Malaysia Development Bhd., a sovereign wealth fund better known as 1MDB, has accumulated total bonds and outstanding loans of about 30 billion ringgit ($9.4 billion) since it was formed four years ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Goldman Fees

The Kuala Lumpur-based fund has acquired 12 billion ringgit of energy assets in the last two years. It is also building a new financial district in the capital called Tun Razak Exchange, named after Najib’s late father, Malaysia’s second prime minister.
“It has borrowings, but its total assets exceed its borrowings,” Najib said of 1MDB. “We’ve got a few projects and programs in mind that will really strengthen 1MDB.”
The fund is talking to potential U.S. investors about venturing into solar energy, said the prime minister, who is chairman of the fund’s advisory board.
1MDB came under scrutiny in parliament in July after hiring Goldman Sachs Inc. to help manage $6.5 billion of bond sales to fund expansion. The U.S. bank made about $500 million in commissions and trading gains, a person familiar with the matter said May 9.
“If you talk in terms of international scale of fees, I think that’s within a margin,” said Najib. “Goldman Sachs have got certain ability and name in the market and they are able to deliver what’s been required. In terms of that relationship, 1MDB is quite happy with what Goldman Sachs has done.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Barry Porter in Kuala Lumpur at bporter10@bloomberg.net; Chong Pooi Koon in Kuala Lumpur at pchong17@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net; Stephanie Phang at sphang@bloomberg.net

Are we in a property bubble?

My friend called and told me how the house she wanted to buy was sold out from the developer within hours. A few weeks earlier, a family friend managed to buy a newly developed house in Bangi, but only after camping from 9 pm the night before to get in the queue. Both houses were priced between RM400,000 to RM500,000 - that's half a million buckeroos!

 

The question is are we in a bubble? Is the house price fueled by demand or speculation? Well, If I know the exact answer to that I would be slogging my butt off at work, would I?

In my view, a bubble in property is when the price far exceed its value. We know the prices based on the transacted amounts which has been going on. But what is the value of a house, a shoplot or an office, really. I just want to look at the house, a dwelling for humans.

What is the value of a house to you?

Well, firstly value is not exact and differs from one person to another. Each has a different cost (of acquisition) and discount factor to a particular property. There are sentiments attached to it. Location, convenience and incidental costs (transportation and time etc) play a role in determining a value of a property to a person. It is important to understand this because 'value' will determine the price he is willing to pay.

Expectation of resale price is also important. On this note I want to stress that value and price are two almost completely, but (most of the time) related thing. Value is an imagination but price is real.

In my book, a bubble is when value - calculated as a function of (1) the real ability to pay based on income and bank loans as well as (2) the alternative cost or opportunity cost being rental rate ( people still have to live somewhere).

So if the demand is coming from people who plans and has the ability to pay - then there is no bubble; merely inflation. Even if someone buys a property for speculation, but he has the means to maintain the loan, then he would not be be in a desperate sell situation. But if the economy suddenly turn for the worse or the banks pull back (significantly) the supply of capital to buy the houses- then you will see a crash.

Anyway, that is my random thought on this glorious Saturday morning.

Have a good weekend friends!

Making sense thru corporate finance

In business, big or small, it will all boils down to this...

That is the stage and there is the plot...if you cannot find where you are then you are in trouble...

For more information, leave a comment, otherwise you can be at our workshop on Corporate Finance, happening on 26 October 2013. More info at this link here.

GST, the economist and the economic sense

The Star reported that some economist are in favor of the GST and that it should be implemented quickly.

Well, indeed GST is an revenue source which is more equitable, IF and only IF
1. You reduce the income tax accordingly and
2. You apply the right subsidy assistance to the right group of people.

But Malaysia does not a have a problem in collecting money - it is rich. The problem is handling money.

There is absolutely no use of generating more revenue for the government's coffers when we do not address the inefficiency and leakages completely. If we do not address these holes before we open the GST tap, we will find ourself back in deficit, back in the same problem - very fast.

And what happens then? Raise the income tax back to pre-GST level? Remove more subsidies?

The problem is not the money people, it is the use (or rather misuse) of it.

Below is the excerpt from the Star Newspaper

Economists urge Govt to implement goods and services tax

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KUALA LUMPUR: The sooner the better. That’s how economists feel about the goods and services tax (GST), whose unveiling is widely anticipated in Budget 2014.
Kenanga Research economist Wan Suhaimi Saidie said a comparative study on the broad-based tax in Australia, Singapore and Thailand showed a positive wealth effect, with the three countries experiencing three- and even four-fold increases in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita post-GST.
“It’s basic economic theory. As the system becomes more efficient across the supply chain, wages, prices and wealth can be distributed more evenly,” he said at a briefing yesterday.
Wan Suhaimi cited Singapore as having the best model for the GST implementation, which saw the city-state substantially reducing corporate and income tax, tripling per capita income and attracting large investments and human capital.
Kenanga Research is expecting an initial GST rate of between 4% and 7%, with 5% being the most likely.
The consumption-based tax, on which basic necessities would be exempted, could be introduced next July at the earliest or January 2015, the local research outfit said.
But Wan Suhaimi suggested that a quick implementation was crucial if the Government intended to stick to its deficit reduction target of 3% by 2015.
Rating agencies, which have been keeping close tabs on Malaysia’s debt situation and dwindling current account surplus, are also in favour of the Government cleaning up its fiscal house, rather than being fixated on growth, which should come naturally with the recovery in external demand, Wan Suhaimi said.
Kenanga Research said a January 2015 timeline for the GST would result in an end-2015 deficit of 3.5%, off the Government’s target by 0.5%.
If the tax took effect next July, however, then the fiscal deficit is likely to be pared down to 3.1% by the end of 2015, its numbers show.
The GST introduction might even lead to a rally on the local bourse, if the stock markets of Australia, Singapore and Thailand were any indication, Kenanga head of research Chan Ken Yew said.
Their benchmark indices soared shortly before the tax came into effect, as consumers hoarded goods and services to avoid paying higher prices, giving markets a short-lived sugar rush.
On his outlook for the market, Chan said he was adopting a “cautiously optimistic” approach, advising clients to buy on weakness – especially if the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index plunges below 1,745 points – and be selective in their stock picks.
And despite the impending pullback of the US Federal Reserve’s easy money policies, which fear-mongers said would drive an unprecedented exit of foreign capital from emerging markets, Chan is taking a contrarian view.
“Foreign investors are returning to Bursa Malaysia. They turned net buyers again recently,” Chan said, noting that the still near-zero interest rates in most Western countries were a boon to monetary expansion.

Give me efficiency before you take my subsidy

There are more news of subsidies being taken away from the people of Malaysia from the Government of Malaysia.

Praise to Allah, he has lifted me from being one of those who need the subsidy BUT there are plenty of others that do need the subsidy - the poor, the orphans and the needy. But my argument is not about the subsidy being 'slashed', but rather what do you do with the savings.

As long as the government is in deficit, the law of basic mathematics says that the savings from the subsidy will be spent by the Government. They will use it for other purposes.

These 'other purposes' must yield better return and benefits (both socially and economically) to the country compared to the benefits of the subsidy. If the returns and benefits are higher, then as a country, we make progress - we created value (in which case I support subsidy reduction with a MORE SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED JABATAN KEBAJIKAN MASYARAKAT).

But if the return from these 'other purposes' is lower, then the Government has destroyed value.

The AG report recently shows that these 'other purposes' could fall to become leakages - wastage. If that happens, than all the savings from the subsidy will be drained away.  I am not saying that this will definitely happen, but there is a possibility of it happening. Based from The AG's report, the 'happening' could be in billions of ringgit.

My say is DO NOT talk about taking away the basic subsidies until you have proven to be efficient to handle the money that you already have. Stop the leakages, stop the corruption. 

Here is the report from the STAR Newspaper (and the photo belongs to STAR too)

 

AYER HITAM: Consumers must be prepared for a possible hike in sugar and flour prices if the Government decides to further reduce subsidies for the two essentials.
Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Hasan Malek said: “If certain decisions could help to strengthen the economy, we will have to do it although it may not be well received.
“We will have various possibilities, and decisions will be made based on our studies.”
Hasan said the Government’s priority was to enhance the economic growth and development of the country, as well as to take care of the people’s welfare.
Hasan said the details would be announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak during Budget 2014 on Oct 25.
“Letting the people understand the reasons behind the slashing of subsidy is important,” Hasan said after opening a new Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) located at Bandar Baru Ayer Hitam here yesterday.
He said this year, the Government would set up 40 more KR1M (Kedai Rakyat 1 Malaysia) outlets nationwide, especially in Sabah and Sarawak.
He said in Johor alone, 12 KR1M outlets had been set up.
“An additional four more are being planned for Segamat, Batu Pahat, Bakri and Sri Gading, ” added Hasan.