Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (pic) denied that the state government had purposely hiked up the land premium in the state.

He attributed the increased premium to the land price in Selangor which kept rising yearly.

"The increase is inevitable as it is determined by the prevailing market value of the land.

"For instance, the land price increase in Petaling Jaya from the last five years to the present is more than 100 percent," he said in reply to an oral question from Datuk Mohd Shamsudin Lias (BN-Sungai Burong) on the state government's land premium policy Wednesday.

To a supplementary question from Gan Pei Nei (PKR-Rawang), Abdul Khalid said single mothers and disabled persons who owned non-commercial land could apply to the state government for a discount on the premium.

"But if the land has been marked for commercial purposes, we cannot freely give a discount because then we have to offer the same to all," he said.