By taking over the four highways and collecting lower congestion charges, motorists will save up to RM180 million annually or around RM2 billion throughout the duration of the toll concessions, Pua said. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — The federal government’s planned takeover of four highways will help Malaysian motorists save money, unlike during Barisan Nasional administration’s, where toll concessionaires were allegedly making huge profits, DAP MP Tony Pua said today.

Pua, who is DAP national publicity secretary, also sought to refute statements by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had criticised the proposed highway takeover.

Pua referred to Najib’s Facebook post where the latter had claimed that Malaysians would be shouldering the RM6.2 billion cost to acquire the four highways, arguing that Najib’s comment was wrong.

“Looks like Datuk Seri Najib has lost the ability to count.

“It can’t be that Datuk Seri Najib does not know that if the government does not take over these highway concessions, highway users will still be paying higher toll fares to the concessionaires that would enable these highway firms to continue enjoying huge profits?” the Damansara MP said in a statement.

Pua instead explained that the government’s acquisition of the LDP, SPRINT, SMART and KESAS highways would instead enable both the government and taxpayers to save money, as there would be no need to fork out over RM5.3 billion in compensation to the toll highway operators to freeze toll hikes before the concessions expire.

While motorists would have to pay congestion charges to cover the operation and maintenance costs of the four highways, these charges would be significantly lower than what they are paying now in toll fares, he said.

He said that the congestion charges would also mean that the government would not have to spend money to take over the highways, as the congestion charges would be sufficient to cover such costs.

By taking over the four highways and collecting the lower congestion charge, motorists would then save up to RM180 million annually or around RM2 billion throughout the duration of the toll concessions, he said.

Pua also shot down Najib’s attempt to mock the new government as planning to continue collecting tolls purportedly rebranded as congestion charges, pointing out that the BN administration under Najib’s attempt to end toll collection had instead resulted in billions of ringgit worth of compensation to highway concession companies.

“This means that only the profits of concessionaires were prioritised. The ones who suffer loss are the taxpayers who were forced to bear such high compensation. That is among the reasons why the BN government had to torture the public with such high GST tax collections to cover the excessive operating costs of the government,” Pua said of the BN era.

He argued that motorists would still have had to continue paying toll to the highway concessionaires even if no compensation was paid under the previous government’s approach, as the concession period would have to be extended for decades, such as the PLUS highway which had its toll collecting period extended from 2018 to 2038.

Pua noted that Najib had while in power repeatedly stressed that the government is unable to takeover toll highways or would suffer huge losses or that the toll rates cannot be reduced, but said the new government under Pakatan Harapan has now “proved” that it is able to acquire these highways at RM6.2 billion without suffering any losses and with congestion charges or toll fares to be significantly reduced while also pocketing savings of RM5.3 billion.

“It is clear that the Barisan Nasional government in the past only prioritised the profits of private highway concessionaires, while the Pakatan Harapan government prioritises the interests of the public and taxpayers,” he said.

Pua also noted that Pakatan Harapan’s approach for the four highways meant that congestion charges would be further reduced significantly at the end of the original concession period, with this collection solely for the operating and maintenance of the highways.

“This charge will not contain any element of profit. If the congestion charge is not collected, the cost will still have to be borne by the government and taxpayers in general,” he explained.

Pua said the government’s highway acquisition efforts represent the first step towards realising Pakatan Harapan’s promise of gradually reducing toll rates, adding that the government will continue to explore solutions to reduce Malaysians’ financial burden pending the future recovery of the country’s financial position.