Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan said this when commenting on a news report in which the former PM said toll charges in Malaysia were one of the cheapest in the world.
“Being the populist that they are, Pakatan Harapan announced that they will abolish all tolls without giving any strategy, evidence and plans on how to do this.”
PH did not provide any figures whatsoever on the costing and how this plan will be financed, said the BN strategic communications director.
Rahman said this was yet another irresponsible and irrational move by PH as they continue to push and mislead the people with their agenda.
“This morning, PH’s future prime minister candidate threw cold water on their initial idea of abolishing tolls.
“Mahathir also justified why tolls are necessary.
“Such conflicts and contradiction within Pakatan Harapan will eventually lead to a perfect storm in the coalition.
“At the end of the day, it will be the people of this country who will suffer from this,” he said, advising the people not to be fooled by PH’s “fake promises”.
Speaking during his “Policy Talks” session, which was aired live today, Mahathir told Malaysians to think twice before complaining about high toll rates as they were not paying as much as other countries.
He said a bridge he had travelled on in Japan imposed a RM270 toll for a one-way journey and more than RM500 for both ways.
“This bridge is almost similar to the Penang bridge, but the Penang bridge only costs RM7 for a return journey,” he said.
Mahathir said he knew Malaysians were unhappy about paying toll but it was not possible for highway concessionaires to operate without imposing toll.
Rahman said when Prime Minister Najib Razak took over, he initiated a rationalisation of toll charges and executed his plans.
For example, the North-South Expressway was acquired by Khazanah and the Employees Provident Fund in 2010 to rebalance the toll-charging mechanism.
“It no longer heavily favours the private companies given the contract. In this case, 51% is held by the government and 49% by the EPF account holders.”
Under this full ownership, he said the concession agreement was re-negotiated and hence all PLUS-owned highways, such as the North-South Highway, Penang Bridge and the Tuas Second Link, did not see any toll increase since Najib became prime minister in 2009.
On top of that, he said some tolls were abolished in the 2018 Budget. These were at Batu Tiga, Sungai Rasau, Johor Bahru EDL Expressway and Bukit Kayu Hitam.
Working with the Sarawak government, Rahman said various pre-existing tolls on roads dating back to the Mahathir-era in Sarawak were also abolished. This made Sarawak a toll-free state.
“Additionally, major new highways, such as the Central Spine Road (CSR) and the Pan-Borneo Highway, that started construction under this Najib government are also designated to be completely toll-free.”