Toll compensation: Harapan doing the same thing, says Najib

The government's decision to freeze toll hike for highways nationwide sound too familiar to former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Indeed, Najib said this was exactly what he had done in his 10 years of his premiership except in 2016 when the government was forced to allow a toll hike.

"In the past 10 years, the tolls on the highways except the North-South Expressway were (allowed to) increase once in 2016 due to pressure on the government's revenue following a 80 percent drop in petrol price to US$30 globally," he said.

"... when there is no toll hike, we need to fork out money (to pay) compensation (to the toll operators)," added Najib, who is also Pekan MP.

"Every year when the BN government paid compensation, DAP was angry with me and accused me of enriching only the toll operator cronies. I was also slammed for allowing a toll hike for 2016," he said.

He also recounted instances where DAP pointed fingers at him for forking out RM2.2 billion to abolish four tolls in Johor, Selangor and Kedah.

"Today, Pakatab Harapan is proud with its decision to pay nearly RM1 billion to prevent toll hikes next year.

"Interestingly, the Finance Minister (Lim Guan Eng) is from the DAP, the party that made it an annual event to slam me," he said.

Sharp turn

Najib enclosed in his social media posting today a previous statement made by Lim to slam the then government for paying a RM400 million compensation (to the toll operators) in 2014.

"Of course, it is not true that Pakatan Harapan did not make a U-turn. But (just make sure) it is not an extreme sharp turn. Later it will become a V-turn," he said.

A month before the May 9 general election, Harapan had promised in its manifesto to abolish all toll highways after taking power.

Two months ago, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted the promise could not be fulfilled.

Work Minister Baru Bian said the governmnet was mulling alternatives to abolishing tolls, including off-peak discounts and avoiding rate hikes for the next few years.

On Nov 2, Lim announced that tolls for both Penang Bridge and Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah Bridge and Johor's Second Link will be abolished next year.

Yesterday, he further announced a freeze in toll hike for 21 highways nationwide that are eligible for an increase in 2019.

On top of that, he also announced a freeze toll hike for Class 5 vehicles (buses) on eight separate highways.

All this adds up to a total of RM994.43 million compensation that would be forked out from the government's coffer in 2019, according to Lim. - Mkini