He said there were stark differences between the PH administration’s proposal to reduce toll rates in 2019 and the current government’s announcement yesterday.

“The PH government planned to take over the four highways and provide a toll-free commute at midnight but still wished to implement a congestion charge during the day.

“Even after the toll concession ended, the PH administration planned to continue collecting these congestion charges forever,” he said on Facebook.

PH had included the issue of abolishing tolls in its 14th general election manifesto.

However, when it came to power, it instead proposed a plan to make highways toll-free for 16 hours a day and give a 30% discount for the remaining eight hours due to the government’s financial constraints.

The proposal came with a catch in that a “congestion charge” would be implemented where commuters would pay the equivalent of existing toll charges for six hours during peak periods.

During the off-peak period between 11pm and 5am, commuters could travel on the highways for free, while rates for regular hours would have been discounted by up to 30%.

Earlier today, PH said the takeover of highway concessionaires was first mooted by its administration in 2019.

Its presidential council said the government’s announcement yesterday was the result of an effort the coalition initiated in October 2019, when its Cabinet decided to commence the process of taking over the four highways.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that there would be no further increase in toll rates for the LDP, SMART, SPRINT and Kesas highways following an agreement to restructure the highway toll concessions.

He said the government had agreed to a proposal to restructure the toll concessions for these highways that would see the existing toll rates remain until the end of their concession periods.