We refer to the letter "Consider floor area in levy of property tax" (mypaper, 1 Dec 2009) by Mr Allan Tan.

Mr Tan expressed the views that "the present method of calculating property tax by their number of rooms is not accurate, as the floor area is not standardised" and that " the floor area of a flat should be considered as a factor in calculating the tax amount".

Mr Tan may be referring to our recently issued brochure on property tax on HDB flats for 2010, where we have included illustrations of computations of property tax payable in 2010 for various room types of owner-occupied HDB flats, for example the property tax payable in 2010 is $88 for a 3-room flat and $190 for a 4-room flat. These illustrations of the property tax payable by broad groupings of room types are meant to give an indication of the amount of property tax payable in 2010 by the various HDB flat owners.

We wish to clarify that annual values of flats are determined based on market rents of comparable flats and this would have taken into account the floor area of the properties, among other factors. Property tax is then computed at a concessionary rate of 4% of the annual value for owner-occupied flats and 10% for non-owner-occupied flats. A new property tax rebate will be granted to all HDB owner-occpiers for the property tax payable in 2010, in addition to the 1994 GST Rebate, which is available to all residential property owner-occupiers.

We thank the writer for his feedback and the opportunity for us to clarify.