At a press conference on Thursday, Jul 5, Johor's chief minister Osman Sapian said it is time for the state to increase the price of raw water being sold to Singapore.
His suggested price is 1600 percent more than the current price, according to a report by ChannelNewsAsia.
Osmian said he had discussed the matter with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
The current price is 3 sen per thousand gallons of raw water. "Perhaps we will increase it to the same rate as sold to Melaka (which is 50 sen per thousand gallons)," he said, according to local news outlet Astro Awani.
"We will review the water price agreements with Singapore to make sure that this can be done. It needs to be discussed more," he added. "I think that if the Johor government wants to raise prices at a reasonable rate, Singapore will accept it because that is our hope."
The Malaysian government will reviewing the existing water agreement with Singapore to see whether it would be possible to raise the price, Osmian said.
The country's Prime Minister Mahathir had previously slammed the price of raw water sold to Singapore as "ridiculous". He also noted that he intends to renegotiate the terms of the water accord, but has yet to speak with the Singapore government on this matter.