The public supports the new parking rate in Kuala Lumpur based on the feedback obtained, according to mayor Mhd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz.

He said the feedback was from residents in Bangsar and Taman Tun Dr Ismail.

“Many people support the increase in the parking rate, but the press does not support. I don’t know about the other side (opposition).

“When there is an increase in parking lots, and we control them, the people have ample space to park, especially in Bangsar."

More people will have the chance to park, he argued, instead of the spots being hogged when the rates were lower.

“In the past, there was double parking, but now there is space to park. The residents in Bangsar and TTDI are happy,” he told reporters, after the march past in conjunction with DBKL's 47th Enforcers' Day.

Mhd Amin was responding to the opposition submitting a protest memorandum to DBKL over the hike, which was deemed as too steep.

The memorandum, along with a petition with 11,000 signatures from city dwellers, asked for a review of the hike in fees and the city parking system in general.

Amongst others, the memorandum detailed complaints by the public that the parking machines only accepted coins for hourly rates and motorists could not pay for other time periods.

Commenting further, Amin said that contrary to what the opposition was accusing, the new parking system was not a funding sinkhole, but was poised to generate hundreds of thousands of ringgit in revenue.

"The opposition said that we wasted money on the new parking system, in truth we did not even pay a single sen, but will get about RM700,000 to RM1 million in revenue with the new system," he said.

Meanwhile Deputy Federal Territories Minister Loga Bala Mohan said that the rakyat had accepted this after hearing the explanation from the ministry.

Though he sniped that the opposition may have sent the memorandum to DBKL just to show that they were not idle, and were doing work.

"We have informed the rakyat that we need to increase parking fees, and they have accepted this.

"The new parking rates will be retained. So of course, they (the opposition) want to look busy. Though if they want to submit the memorandum, they are free to do so," he said.

City Hall had increased parking rates by over 150 percent in its central business districts since July 8.

This has affected areas like Bukit Bintang, Sri Hartamas, Desa Hartamas, Bukit Damansara, Solaris Mont Kiara, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Bangsar.

However after protests from the public, DBKL revised the hourly rates in these areas from RM2 to RM1.50 for the first hour, and between RM2.50 and RM3 for the the second and subsequent hours.

But for areas outside of the city centre, but with high traffic activity like Sentul, Bangsar and Brickfields, the charges for the first and subsequent hours is RM1, while for outlying areas like Segambut, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Setiawangsa, Sunga Besi and Bandar Tun Razak the hourly rate is RM0.80.

Last year, the DBKL appointed the Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan, which is the welfare arm of the Federal Territories Ministry, to administer the parking system in Kuala Lumpur.

Based on the agreement signed, the foundation will pay DBKL 35 percent of the gross takings from the parking fees collected each month.