Opposition MP Tony Pua questioned today the federal government’s calculations that led it to surmise it needed to pay a whopping RM400 billion to take over 26 privatised highways. — file picture

KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Opposition MP Tony Pua today questioned the federal government’s calculations that led it to surmise it must pay a whopping RM400 billion to take over 26 privatised highways that were built for just RM28.5 billion.

The Petaling Jaya Utara lawmaker also took Putrajaya to task for suggesting that all the acquisitions take place at the same time.

He said such an undertaking was detrimental to public welfare at a time when rising inflation rates had taken a toll on their daily lives.

“How is it that the BN Government can arrive at an incredulous figure of RM400 billion or more than 14 times the RM28.5 billion cost of construction?” Pua asked in a statement.

He told The Malay Mail Online that he had arrived at the RM28.5 billion price tag for all the 26 highways based on information released through the ministries’ replies to questions asked in Parliament, ministerial press statements, data from the companies as well as from the Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad.

Pua said that all the highway contracts contained a mutual agreement clause that allowed the government to reclaim the concessions based on the cost of construction, with a guarantee that the firms would have received a 12 per cent return on each of the prior years of operation.

The only two exceptions to that rule were the North South Expressway and the Penang Bridge, the MP said.

Pua claimed that even if the highway companies had not made any profit in all their years of operation, the maximum amount the government would have to pay would be about RM50 billion, “an-eighth of the federal government’s ridiculous estimate of RM400 billion”.

He said it was unlikely such a scenario had unfolded, “which means that there will be no need for the government to compensate for ‘insufficient’ profit in the previous operating years”.

He also insisted that the government did not need to take over all the highways but only those that he claimed to be making “unreasonable profits”, and named the Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP) with a net profit margin in excess of 40 per cent.

By claiming a mammoth price tag to compensate the highway companies, Pua said the government had proved it never had any intent to negotiate a buyback.

“Instead, it will do its utmost to protect the ludicrous profits enjoyed by the BN crony companies for purposes better known to themselves,” he said.

Putrajaya had prompted an uproar yesterday when it claimed it would take over RM400 billion to take over all toll concessionaires.

In his parliamentary reply to Sepang MP Mohaed Hanipa Maidin, Works Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof said the takeover could also be seen as a nationalisation effort, which will tarnish the government’s image among the capital market and foreign investors.