You may be wondering about the strange headline for this post. If you have been reading papers for the past few days, you would be aware of the whole Bandar Mahkota Cheras and Cheras-Kajang Expressway barricade issue.
Basically, the gist of it is that the residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras have been using a recently constructed link road to enter the highway which allowed them to bypass the Batu 11 toll plaza. Using the link road, their journey is shorter and they would only have to pay toll at the Batu 9 toll plaza. This of course reduces revenue for the highway’s concessionaire, Grand Saga Sdn Bhd.
So Grand Saga put up a barrier, blocking the link road. The result: residents of Bandar Mahkota Cheras have to pay the additional toll at the Batu 11 toll place, but that’s not all.
According to the Malay Mail they have to travel an additional 6km because of the detour. In times where the government is bleeding from fuel subsidies, the Cheras-Kajang Expressway barricades block a link road that shortens commuting distance, so more fuel is consumed.
On a car that consumes 8 litres per 100km, an additional 6km means an extra 0.48 litres of fuel consumed per journey, or 14.4 litres of fuel a month. Multiply this by a thousand residents who drive and that’s 14400 litres of fuel. Multiply that by 12 months – 172800 litres of fuel wasted a year. Oh, and I almost forgot… multiply that by a two way journey and you get 345600 litres per year.
Assuming a subsidy of RM1 per litre, that’s RM345,600 of government cash spent per year per 1000 residents. Two factors would inflate the actual total number even more, the fact that there are so much more than 1000 residents in that area and the fact that a lot of cars consume more than 8 litres per 100km.
Another inflating factor would be the fact that a non-highway detour route would most likely have lots of slow, stop-and-go traffic, increasing fuel consumption significantly. We may be looking at an actual figure of 12 to 15 litres per 100km.
Do the math!
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A by-product of government rip-off rakyat at-large for the sake of a company. Most of these things happen and still rakyat’s not smart enough to think how dare the elected government do this to his beloved rakyat.
I doubt government really care when the have grudge over expensive fuel! Irony.
This country simply should rename as TAXLAND, one of the most expensive auto tax in the world, among most expensive oil producing country and quite low wages (don’t compare with northern neighbors but southern neighbor).
If government can pay or redeem hiways for rakyat, it’s better than having white elephant mega project as good transportation will spur development, competitiveness and efficiency through cost saving.
Lower tax will affect government revenue BUT more disposable income- good for business. Yes, lowering the car taxes will make people buying more imported cars BUT in long run do people buying car like buying shirts? We do not change our PC every years or every two years though compared to 1994 our PC now merely priced at a fraction and more powerful. The same you can’t equate to car industry. At one time, when cheaper cars but higher cost related to car ownership (ideal once public transportation is decent) the car sale will heading south, instead.
BTW, subsidized fuel must carefully reduced over time in tandem with price reduction in car prices.
Biased policy towards the capitalist. The people who suffer. i wonder how the developer cannot pay the RM200m to grand Saga at first. this is the main culprit.
Nice math calculation Paul. At least when Pakatan Rakyat took over Selangor, only then this issue came to the limelight, and the land office claimed that the road is built on state land.
The previous Toyol government never bother to resolve the issue.
Hi, Paul, you are the only one who looks from this perspective, well done. This Grand Saga ordeal is really unbearable for the rakyat. I have some doubts and questions below, hope to get some answers.
1. Imagine, the Goumen took the original Cheras Old Road, offering low interest loan and subsidising Land cost to a Private company, let them convert it into a Highway, built two tolls which are so close to each other, and then collecting toll fee from the road users, and the Rakyat is kept in the dark because the Agreement is a secret under OSA. Ironic, isn’t it? The same thing happens to SILK Highway where the original Kajang Utama access road to Kajang Town has been taken away and converted to a Highway (where two tolls are so sclose to each other,absurd?) the detour takes more than 5 km and may be Paul can help me calculating the litres of petrol consumed. What kind of BN Guomen is this? Where is the KEPRIHATINAN BN always talk about? Whose benefit are these BN leaders and Guomen top brass trying to protect by classifying the Toll Concessionary Agreement under OSA? Very disturbing, right?
2. If Grand Saga has wrongly constructed the barricade on the State Land for the past years, may be the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat leaders can take legal actions against them and claim compensation for their wrong deeds. I am not sure, since there are so many lawyers in Selangor PR, they are the best people to pursue this matter in court.
3. The MSM reported that Grand Saga operator has engaged thugs who carried dangerous weapons in order to prevent Mahkota residents from stopping the workers in constructing the barricade on Monday and these thugs have taken the law in their own hands by beating up the innocent by-standers and passers by, damaging vehicles parking nearby, while the policemen nearby did not take any actions. So who are these thugs? Who are their real identity? Have the police acted swiftly and detained these thugs for questioning and charged them for using dangerous weapons as well as man slaughter? Have the Selangor PR leaders made police report regarding this frightening act by Grand Saga? What is the connection between Zainal Abidin, the ED of Grand Saga, the former Dang Wangi Police Chief and these thugs? What is the police stand in this case? Syed Hamid, police is under your control, and please don’t stay quiet, can you please investigate the Selangor CPO and Kajang OCPD regarding the above and explain it in the Parliament?
4. Why the BN Guomen never bother to voice their concerns in this Grand Saga dispute? What about the JKR Minister and other cabinet members? As Pak Lah said, BN is still the ruling coalition, right? So Pak Lah and his members must resolve this issue since the Toll concessionary is a Federal matter, and Selangor state guomen is powerless when federal matter is involved, right? So, whose fault? Can Pak Lah and his cabinet tell us?
5. What about the RM4.4Billion BN Guomen promised that they would use it to upgrade the Public Transport system? So far any, is there any improvement on public transport? Why don’t the BN guomen use part of the above fund to construct a LRT route from Kajang, along side the Saga Highway, till Golden triangle of KL, and connecting it to KL Sentral? Or are they afraid that this will affect the income of Grand Saga? Pak Lah, can you please act fast and deliver the BN promise when petrol price was raised years ago?
6. Shamel is right in pointing out that the auto tax in Malaysia is the highest in the world. It’s pointless for the Guomen to increase the wages of the people if they are burdened with all kind of heavy taxes, especially when they have to purchase vehicles since they cannot rely on public transport. The Rakyat’s disposable income is fast diminishing with the current rate of inflation and it is a dangerous situation for the country. What’s the future plan of BN guomen in solving this critical problem? Why can’t the BN Guomen quickly put the public transport in proper order, so that the Rakyat will be happier as they can dispose their cars and have their burden relieved?
The management skills and policies making need lots of wisdom and BN guomen is facing a mammoth task. They are the Federal Guomen and they must act fast before things deteriorate further. The people is watching you.
Thanks to G, the rakyat are robbed in the daylight!
The Menteri Krja Rya should be shameful with himself,as he never show up & make any positive comments to help the rakyat,as far as we known.Brutally betan up the rakyat,let those gangster ran riot,is this the best way to appreciate & treat the rakyat,who pays taxes to feed their big fat salary?& what make us sad is we even havent see the PM or DPM comment on this issue,& take legal action on those morron who beaten the rakyat…what have happen to our country?
Paul, weldone men. It really explorer me and from other point of view. Thanks.
Anyhow, Left and Right also goes into same pocket, who care about Rakyat…as long have $$$ to get big house / car / full with cash than early retired. (Sorry to be too negative)
Even paultan.org has coverage on this news.
Good calculation Paul. Expanding from your calculation:
345,600litres subsidy wasted per 1000 vehicles per year.
@RM1.92/litre it will be:
345,600 litres x 38(thousands families) x RM1.92 = RM25,214,976 fuel wasted yearly. O.o
Ohh and also, if you want to go a step further:
all of they shouldn’t pay tolls at all if it is proven that GS has no right to block the road
38,000cars x RM0.90 x 2 x 265days = RM24,966,000 wasted at tolls yearly.
And that is just assuming your car is at 8kmpl and each families only has one car and you only go thru the batu 11 toll twice daily.
Most families in KL has more then one car.
And the road has been blocked for 2.5 years… which give us a rough figure about how much compensation we need to ask for when we trying to sue them.
Can anyone confirm my calculation? BMC residents alone contributed at least RM50millions to a single grand saga toll yearly?
No wonder GS die trying to block the road.
urm to be fair, grand saga highway should take the brunt of the bashing here, the new state gov and even the police are on the side of the people in bandar mahkota.
most frustrating abt this damn toll is you still get stuck in the traffic jam after you pay toll. WTF!?
Try going thru this toll/section of the road from 6-9 in the morning….and you’ll understand the frustration of the rakyat.
This company must be belong to one of the UMNO … so Federal Governemnt refuse to speak up … and send mat rempit to beat those rakyat.
I dont think the G(BN) will do any thing about this issue, look who r the boss & Directors in the company???!!!
Soon or later we will see “Terrorist” or “The “France revolution” in Malaysia to bomb or to chop all the Con man head off. I think we really need this movement to clean out a the dirt in the longkong!!!!!
Right on sir….. This is only one of the example about the g saying one thing, but doing by the opposite…. Asked us to reduce energy usage, but then re-route us so ppl have to travel futher and pay more toll.. Traffic lights at every junction with very bad timings and sequence.. etc.
Other countries have to pay congestion charges, but for ppl in Bolehland, u pay and still the road is congested…(at the toll plaza!!)
very serious allegations on point 3 by shen. police stand by while thugs beat up innocent people with weapons?
where is the respect that policemen want as well as humanity?
shenzutong said,
3. The MSM reported that Grand Saga operator has engaged thugs who carried dangerous weapons in order to prevent Mahkota residents from stopping the workers in constructing the barricade on Monday and these thugs have taken the law in their own hands by beating up the innocent by-standers and passers by, damaging vehicles parking nearby, while the policemen nearby did not take any actions. So who are these thugs? Who are their real identity? Have the police acted swiftly and detained these thugs for questioning and charged them for using dangerous weapons as well as man slaughter? Have the Selangor PR leaders made police report regarding this frightening act by Grand Saga? What is the connection between Zainal Abidin, the ED of Grand Saga, the former Dang Wangi Police Chief and these thugs? What is the police stand in this case? Syed Hamid, police is under your control, and please don’t stay quiet, can you please investigate the Selangor CPO and Kajang OCPD regarding the above and explain it in the Parliament?
______
must be the mat rempit lar…cos the report said they used sticks and helmets
Also now I know what mode the “Terroristâ€. when u been chock to the max & no one care about it…. this the only way out??
awak tak pilih, saya tak kerja lar.
we suppot the residence of BMC, dont let the those “jahanam” to block the road.
Paul,
I may be wrong as I am not familiar with the area, but looking at the map, if this new access road is opened, couldn’t it be used by the KL-Cheras highway users to get onto the Silk highway without going through the Batu 11 toll? If this is true, then Grand Saga stands to lose a lot more than the toll collection from the Bandar Mahkota folks alone.
If many people start doing this, isn’t it possible that this road will become congested and result in even more fuel being wasted? Just look at the jam on the toll free road in front of Siemens next to the Sprint highway.
One of the president of the GS is our ex polices head de… if not mistake.. that why police aat the first state also try to help GS but not resident there..
even some residents been hit by ganaster, they just ignore, besides, they block resident to damages the road block…. WTF!!!!!!!!!
all these Huh-Hahh are all caused by MONEY and GREED, and the Grand Sage mentioned the blockage was primarily for the sake of safety among road users.
Yeah, rite……and elephant can fly aeroplane…
Dear All,
It seems like most of us are being too emotionally overwhelm with this issues causing our reasonings ability to be affected too. Personally I know some “gangsters” in KL and Selangor, they’re actually decent people (just like us) at the day and night time transform into something else. They will not be easily provoke unless the Bandar Mahkota Cheras folks did something first (maybe they are the ones who fired the first shot). I’m not a “gangster” supporter but I don’t want to be biased in the way I think as well. Also, it seems like the “Bandar Mahkota Cheras” have been used politically by the oppositions to gain public interest. The best thing people could do in here is to speculate rather than to get the facts straights. So far PaulTan’s research shows the main reasons why the “penduduk” at that particular area “mengamuk”. Then again what “git70” said on May 29, 2008 @ 5:46 pm could be true as well. The road might be jam packed if they remove the barricade. I believe Malaysians are clever enough to settle things on the table rather than “throwing” it around. As usual, this is just my 2 ringgit and 45 cents (after rounding up).
hello syoh
“Also, it seems like the “Bandar Mahkota Cheras†have been used politically by the oppositions to gain public interest.”.”It seems like most of us are being too emotionally overwhelm with this issues causing our reasonings ability to be affected too”
you’re contradicting of wht u just said by saying our reasonings ability has been affected,while you left an obnoxious comment like the opposition being still PR. first of all the opposition is no more PR and is now BN and I dont see a reason why BN would want to gain public interest when this scumbags go on digging the rakyats gold in the form of toll collection.And thats my 2ringgit and 10sen(after paying 90sen fer the toll) =)
Just feel sad reading this news from today newspaper!
What should a Gov do for the sake of rakyat or their own pocket ?
What are the responsibility of Police ?
Aren’t they(Police) should protect rakyat ?
Then who the hell FRU(Fed. Resvp. Unit) should protect ?
In today newspaper also mentioned that Gov would take action on bloggers!
So will Gov use ISA at blogger oneday…?
One day? They have been using ISA against bloggers for years now.
oh dear.. just pitty those living at BMC.
folks, do u think our G learn something from this incident? lets pray hard if they do learn……
I think the ppl now is worst then the Taiwan’s Ah Pian!!!
the selangor govt has shares in the company!
refer to the star today…
the rest i dont know…
problem settel already
the barricade had been removed… until?? :)
as far as i’m concerned, toll roads are suppose to be an alternative for residents, not the MAIN road. if there’s an alternative for BMC residents to go to KL without paying toll, then i don’t care if Grand Saga would like to contest that they’re losing money. but now BMC residents have no other options. so pretty much they’re forced to pay toll no matter what as the government are not providing them with an alternative road.
knowing that the Selangor State Govt has substantial share in Grand Saga, i wonder if the Kajang Municipal council approved the plan to build BMC knowing that there’s no options for BMC residents going to KL without paying toll so that they can fill the state coffers from the toll collection as pretty much, almost all highways in Malaysia are profitable due to the lopsided that favors the concessionaires to the Rakyat
Best Idea so far. No cash subsidies. Many indicated that will be sold. Don’t worry, the top people will come up with an idea / excuse to sapu the money even before it reaches the people la.
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RX-ate said,
May 31, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
I think the best solution for the govn is to do away with the high car taxes in Malaysia and remove the fuel subsidy at the same time. That way, a salary man will not have to carry the burden of paying so much tax for a car and paying high prices for fuel at the same time.
It would also give the govn less headache of working out a suitable subsidy plan. I believe this is a win- win situation for both parties.
What do u think??
hk_loo said,
May 29, 2008 @ 11:35 am
This company must be belong to one of the UMNO … so Federal Governemnt refuse to speak up …
…………………………….
actually kerajaan negeri selangor ada share dlm grand saga. sbb tu la gomen uat diam je. buat bodo je.
dlm kes nie , apa yg saya tahu. grand saga boleh bukak jalan dgn syarat narajaya kena bayar ganti rugi.
kenapa ? dari apa yg saya tahu ,
sebab grand saga yg buat dulu highway, narajaya kemudian. pendapat saya , klu bicara di mahkamah saya rasa grand saga akan menang juga dan narajaya kena bayar gantirugi.
mungkin penduduk bmc pun kena push jugak si narajaya ni. takkan ganyang grand saga je. sekarang ni aku nampak penduduk BMC pulak yang buat keje utk narajaya. ada share ke?
Klu narajaya buat rumah dulu, grand saga memang kena buat exit ke tmn BMC.
sekian
what