Renegotiate concession agreements - Gobind

Instead of postponing highway toll hikes, the government has been urged to renegotiate concession agreements with highway concessionaire companies.

Puchong member of Parliament Gobind Singh Deo said by postponing the hikes, the government is now forced to par RM400 million in compensation to the companies.

“There should be limits to profit margins for these contracts and their duration and if there are none, then Parliament should legislate to provide for it,” he said in a press statement, Thursday.

He said laws should be designed to deal with contracts like the highway toll hikes and allow such contracts to be reviewed periodically.

“The government should stop pushing the problem away. It must find a permanent solution to it and it must not delay any further as delays will cost huge losses to the people in form of compensation,” he said.

He said the RM400 million compensation money could be channeled more effectively to other more important areas to help the people.

“On the one hand they say no toll hikes but on the other hand they pay huge amounts of compensation. This compensation ultimately comes from the people. This is where we will see an overall increase in prices of goods and services to pay this compensation,” he added.

On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced that the toll prices in all concessions in the Klang Valley will not be raised this year.

Muhyiddin said the decision to reduce the burden of rising cost of living by maintaining toll rates was decided at a Cabinet meeting recently.

He said the government will now have to fork out RM400 million to be paid to toll concession companies for the decision to maintain the toll rates this year.

The announcement came as a huge relief especially to the Klang Valley commuters who had expected the toll rates to be increased this year following Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar statement last year that impending toll rate hike in 2014 is unavoidable.

Abdul Wahid said the toll rate should have been revised in 2011, as stated in the concession agreement.