30 minutes
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will appoint an independent consultant by next month to analyse all ongoing toll concessions in the country and to help look for ways to reduce the burden of tolls on the rakyat.
Works Minister Baru Bian said this included the possibility of reducing the current toll rates on all highways, with the study to be tabled and presented to the cabinet in May of next year.
“The proposal to reduce the toll rates will be included in this study. We won’t dismiss it. But it needs some time. Which is why we are appointing an independent consultant.
“Inshaallah (God willing), what is being desired by the rakyat (to reduce toll rates) is also what the government desires,“ he told the Dewan Negara, here today.
Baru was responding to a question from Senator Mohamad Imran Abd Hamid on when the government expects to fulfil its election promise of abolishing toll collection.
Commenting further on the matter, Baru said the government has already begun the tendering process, with the Malaysian Highway Authority given the task of appointing the consultant.
He said the closing date for tender process was on Jan 2, and that the appointment of the consultant was expected to be made on Jan 13.
Baru, last month, told the Dewan Rakyat that the toll collected by concessionaires on all tolled highways in the country had more than doubled their construction costs.
He said there were currently 29 tolled expressways still operating nationwide which cost a total of RM35.14 billion to construct — with a further RM2.5 billion spent on operational and maintenance costs each year — but that the concessionaires have so far collected RM74.65 billion since the start of toll collection up to 2017.
He added that of the 29 concession agreements, two of them were scheduled to end in the next 10 years, 16 concessions to end between 11 and 20 years, while the remaining 11 were scheduled to end over 20 years.
