In Local News / By Anthony Lim / 26 June 2019 10:42 am / 34 comments

Highway concessionaire PLUS says it is willing to review the concession agreements should the government want to take over PLUS-operated tolled highways. According to its MD Datuk Azman Ismail, PLUS is open to a toll concession takeover by the government, as Bernama reports.

“We are a concession company and we have signed agreements with the government. If the government wants to change (the agreements), we will look at it (proposal), in accordance with the agreement. We just have to wait what the government has to offer,” he said in response to a question posed over the matter.

The concessionaire is the expressway arm of UEM Group, which is a subsidiary of Khazanah. Both UEM and Khazanah collectively hold a 51% share in PLUS, with the remainder owned by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). Previously, Khazanah said it would leave it to PLUS to handle discussions if there was a proposal by the government to take over its toll expressways, but would advise PLUS from time to time.

The question about a potential takeover for PLUS comes after last week’s decision by the government to take over four concessions of toll highways, namely the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP), Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat (Sprint), Shah Alam Expressway (Kesas) and the Smart Tunnel, to the tune of RM6.2 billion.

While not eliminating tolls completely on the four routes, finance minister Lim Guan Eng said commuters using these four highways will save as much as RM180 million annually in the switch to a congestion charge system. He added that the move is also set to save taxpayers RM5.3 billion in compensation to the concessionaires.