KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) must take firm action against locals who misuse their business licences by allowing foreigners to use them, and blacklist licence holders who commit the offence.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh said said the move was necessary to curb unlicensed businesses operated by foreigners, particularly in the capital.
Yeoh said she had also instructed DBKL to step up enforcement operations to ensure business licences were issued to the actual applicants.
"If we discover that a Malaysian has obtained a business licence but sublets it to a foreigner, DBKL will revoke the licence.
"We will not compromise on this and will immediately blacklist licence holders found doing so," she told a press conference on projects to upgrade a special education multisensory room, repaint school buildings and improve a multipurpose mini court at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Taman Sri Sinar here today.
She was responding to concerns that foreigners continued to operate businesses without licences in the capital, with the issue allegedly remaining unresolved despite enforcement by local authorities.
The situation has prompted some members of the public to take matters into their own hands by monitoring and exposing locations where foreigners were allegedly operating such businesses.
Yeoh said DBKL conducted regular enforcement operations and would not compromise with foreigners operating businesses without licences.
However, she said local authorities could not act alone as their powers were limited by the laws they enforced.
She said cooperation between agencies, including the Immigration Department and the police, needed to be strengthened to tackle the issue more effectively.
In a separate development, Yeoh said the use of body cameras by DBKL enforcement officers, currently limited to a small number of personnel, was expected to be expanded to almost all officers through an allocation in next year's budget.
She said the move would improve safety and transparency during enforcement operations.
Meanwhile, the Segambut MP said her office had channelled RM99,367 through the Kuala Lumpur Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) to the SK Taman Sri Sinar Parent-Teacher Association to repair and upgrade its special education multisensory room and repaint the school buildings.
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