Anina: Toll hike shows ministers have no brains

They can't think because they're too busy defending Najib, says the Umno rebel.

PETALING JAYA : Umno dissenter Anina Saadudin today attributed the imminent increase in toll rates to the government’s failure to consider the public’s welfare.

She said the cabinet ministers, if they were not too “busy defending Prime Minister Najib Razak,” could have decided to use revenues from the Goods and Services (Tax) to continue paying compensation to the highway concessionaires.

If they had used their imagination, she said in a media statement, they would have decided against adding to the public’s misery.

“They were too busy defending Prime Minister Najib Razak,” she said. “Perhaps, they actually have no brains.”

She noted that the government had promised to return the proceeds from GST to the people.

“Where are the billions of ringgit from the GST revenue?” she said. “Didn’t the government promise to return them to the rakyat?”

She said the hike in toll rates would add to the public’s burden of dealing with price increases for everyday items after the GST’s introduction.

Twelve highway concessionaires announced this week that the toll rates would increase this Thursday.

They said they had decided to “coordinate the toll rate structure” after the government’s decision to stop paying them compensation.