Is PH’s manifesto promise to abolish tolls or extend them, asks Najib

Najib Razak and Tony Pua continue their war of words over the PLUS toll discount rates.

PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak has hit back at Tony Pua, the political secretary to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, as they continue to trade barbs over the PLUS toll discount rates.

Najib sarcastically asked if Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto was to abolish tolls or to extend the concession for 20 years.

He told Pua to give some actual numbers on the losses the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) would bear from the discount if it was not RM68 billion as the former prime minister had claimed.

“What happened to the fairytale that ‘only RM26 billion is needed to abolish all tolls in Malaysia’ that you repeated over and over again since 10 years ago?” he said in a Facebook post today.

Najib also asked how EPF members in the east coast and Sabah and Sarawak would benefit as they would not be able to enjoy the discounted rates since EPF will bear the cost of the subsidy.

Earlier today, Pua claimed Najib criticised Putrajaya’s decision as his administration had failed to carry out what the PH government did.

He said Najid had failed to understand the mathematics and was “not good at counting”, as the argument that EPF would lose RM26 billion or even RM68 billion was a “baseless and blind accusation”.

“This achievement is in line with the PH manifesto promise that has successfully been implemented without creating losses for the government or taxpayers.

“Instead, the savings received by the government will be allocated back to the people in the form of development or welfare,” he said in a statement. - FMT