PETALING JAYA: Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua today hit out again at the proposal to abolish four tolls, warning that compensation will cost millions which will ultimately be paid for by the people.
He said Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani had said in an interview with TV3 Nightline that PLUS would have to be compensated some RM102 million per year for the Batu Tiga and Sungai Rasau tolls.
Another RM8 million would be needed for the Bukit Kayu Hitam toll, while compensation for the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) is also pegged at RM8 million, he added.
“The above will cost the government RM118 million per year just to abolish these four tolls.
“The concessions for all four tolls expire in 2038. Assuming the compensation doesn’t increase over time, it will still cost a whopping RM2.36 billion,” he said in a statement.
In his budget speech last Friday, Prime Minster Najib Razak had announced that the toll collection at these four points would cease beginning Jan 1, 2018.
Johari meanwhile said no cash compensation was involved but that the government was trying to extend the tenure of the existing toll agreement.
Pua, who is DAP national publicity secretary, said whether compensation was given in cash or through the extension of concessions, those footing the bill would still be the people.
“Let’s not forget that the government has already compensated toll concessionaires before when they announced halting toll rate hikes in past budget speeches.
“Each one of these populist moves only ended up costing the government and Malaysians more and more.
“The prime minister’s toll ‘freebie’ is no freebie at all.”
Urging the government to stop “fleecing” Malaysians, Pua said if Putrajaya was serious about making tolls affordable for the people, it would take Pakatan Harapan’s advice.
In its manifesto, he said, the opposition coalition had called for the abolition of highway tolls in stages via the restructuring and renegotiation of the toll agreements with concessionaires.
“Nearly all of these agreements contain clauses which allows the government to expropriate these highways based on agreed formulas.
“And in many circumstances, compensating toll concessionaires based on revenue loss as what the Barisan Nasional (BN) government is doing, costs a whole load more than just expropriating the highways outright.”
He gave the example of compensation for the Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP) which, between 1990 and 2015, hit RM1.05 billion.
This was despite the actual cost of construction, including interest, amounting to only RM1.3 billion, he added.
“And there’s 13 more years to the concession period for compensation to be paid and for the concessionaire to make outrageous profits.”
This is not the first time Pua has spoken against the proposal to abolish the tolls.
On Tuesday, he said Najib should come clean as to how much taxpayers must fork out for the EDL and how the compensation was calculated.
He said the only way for the EDL toll to be abolished was for Putrajaya to give a multi-billion ringgit compensation to EDL’s concessionaire, MRCB.
“The rakyat’s biggest fear is the Najib administration bailing out highway concessionaires, further proving that BN’s intrinsic economic policy is to ‘privatise profits and socialise losses’,” he said. -FMT
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