DAP questions RM394m for toll concessionaires
KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 5, 2009) : The DAP questioned the 2010 Budget allocation of RM394 million to compensate toll concessionaires for not raising toll rates and urged the government to renegotiate the contracts or take over the tolled highways instead.
Speaking to reporters in a press conference, Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong pointed out the government had also paid RM180 million in 2009 and RM380 million in 2008 under the Works Ministry as similar compensation.
Urging the government to reconsider the approach, Liew said: “It is crucial for the government to list the recipients of this huge amount of public funds and state why the budgeted amount for 2010 is more than double that for 2009, from RM180 million to RM394 million, though it was RM380 million in 2008.”
“It is listed as a “one-off’ payment allocated to the Works Ministry, though in actual fact it is by now a recurring item draining taxpayers money,” he said.
“While it is a populist move not to raise toll rates in 2008, the lopsided contracts between the government and the concessionaire mean that one way or the other the public is still paying for such daylight robbery,” he said.
“This will end the eternal nightmare of a 10 per cent hike in toll rates once every three years,” he said.