Bintulu Member of Parliament, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing said to his knowledge, BDA so far had not made any decision with regards to increasing the present assessment rates.

"There should not be any fear on the privatisation. What BDA is doing was to improve their waste management system and being a local authority, they will always try to find the best way to improve the living standard in Bintulu," he added.

He was speaking to reporters after his rounds of urban visits here over the weekend.

BDA since Aug 1 this year had engaged a private company, Sarawak Wastes Management Sdn Bhd 
(SWM)to implement and manage an integrated solid waste management system for the division here.

The move was said to be a way to improve domestic waste collection system here.

Tiong, who earlier visited the the town's main hawkers' centre also proposed BDA to introduce hourly card system to solve the parking problems in the area.

He learnt from the hawkers that a lot of shoppers were unable to buy items there due to difficulties in getting vacant parking lots.

It was noted that a number of vehicles were parked for the whole day as one of the reasons for shortage of vacant parking bays there.

Tiong also pledged to get actual details from BDA on the fresh fish centre located near Sungai Sebiew here after fish mongers at the hawkers' centre claimed that it had posed unfair competitions to them.

The fishmongers alleged that their business had been badly affected following the operation of fresh fish centre while at the same time, they still had to pay rentals to BDA.