Following reports on Friday revealing that the government has made a RM6.2 billion offer to take over the operators of the Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong (LDP), Sistem Penyuraian Trafik KL Barat (Sprint), Lebuhraya Shah Alam (Kesas) and the Smart Tunnel, finance minister Lim Guan Eng has issued a statement to confirm the offer, and explain the move.
“The acquisition of these four tolled highways represents the first steps in reducing the burden of highway users and fulfilling Pakatan Harapan’s promise,” he said, while confirming that the move does not mean that motorists will say goodbye to tolls at the four highways. As mentioned in February, when then highway acquisition plan was first mooted, a congestion charge system will be in place.
“Under the new congestion charge system that was previously announced, commuters using these four highways will save as much as RM180 million per annum, and these savings will go straight into the disposable income of Malaysian households. The congestion charge model follows a variable pricing structure which depends on the time of the day,” Lim said.
“In principle, the government will give discounts of up to 30% for hours outside of peak periods and free travel during off-peak periods. In addition, the maximum congestion charge will be capped at the current toll rate in order to not cause further burden to the commuters,” he explained.
The minister said that the final structure of the congestion charge will be studied and refined in further detail before being implemented on Jan 1 next year. Of course, before that, the completion of the government’s offer to the Gamuda-linked highway operators is subject to due diligence, shareholders’ and creditors’ approval, and the final green light by the cabinet.
The move will also save government coffers RM5.3 billion in compensation payments to the toll concessionaires in order to freeze toll rate hikes until the end of the respective concession periods.
“The government will no longer be required to pay such compensations after acquiring these four highways. This means that the government will be able to allocate additional spending of more than RM5.3 billion in the coming years for the benefit of Malaysian citizens across the country,” Lim said.
“In other words, not only will this measure benefit commuters using these tolled highways, Malaysian citizens all across the country will enjoy the benefits too. The government had negotiated earnestly with the concessionaires to make a fair acquisition offer, such that it maximises the returns for the people, and not result in any financial burden for the government at the same time,” he added.
Lim explained that the special purpose vehicle (SPV) wholly-owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated will finance the offer of RM6.2 billion by way of bond issuance. The collection of congestion charge will be sufficient to service the debt, as well as to finance the operation and maintenance costs of the highways without requiring additional budget allocation.
Basically, the theory is that the acquisition cost will be self-financing through the collection of congestion charge. Any surplus collection goes towards the upgrade and maintenance of the public transport system.
The Bagan MP said that the market share of the four highways is around 48%, based on the toll revenue collected (for intracity highways, excluding Plus highways), and if this acquisition model proves successful, the government will apply the same model to acquire the concessions of other tolled highways in the future, including intercity highways.
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any moves that intends to save people’s money (esp. my money) I surely support.
Using our taxpayer money to take over isn’t saving money. It’s just expenditure go from right pocket to left pocket.
No other country pampers their rakyat like how Malaysia does. Be grateful. Even education also never save, expect the Government to pay for that too
Minyak murah, tol murah, kete murah.Syukur
Ye ke? Mana negara tu? Saya mau pindah sana.
Even middle class will not pay the fees for the low standard of education in Malaysia universities. They want to spent their money on high standard of education which is not available in Malaysia compare to those days Malaysia is link to Cambridge high standard whereby.everyone willing to pay
Correct. Previous Gov should kautim all this education & highways 61 years ago. But better late then never, Malaysia playing catch up now with old peers SG, Korea, HK, Taiwan who are way ahead…
No other country politicians will promise the sky, the stars, the moon just to win at all cost like how Malaysia does. Why should we be grateful when they made promises they can’t keep? About education, these politicians need to be educated how to be proper statesmen and not simply make promises then don’t keep them when come to power.
We expect gomen to pay for this because they had made that promise to abolish tolls. If they didn’t make that promise, we wouldn’t have mind if they choose not to pay for it.
This type of mindset is what malaysians are. If the government go broke paying for the toll which you dont care, hope you lose your job and cannot feed your family too.
Sarawak sarawak, what mindset are you talking about? Who made the promise in the first place? I couldnt care less if the toll is here forever. But when u made promise to abolish it when in power, then please keep the promise
Be grateful? Why should we be grateful when the country could have done without tolled highways everywhere? Sorry but I’m not, and will never be, grateful to Bapa Tol Malaysia.
The trolling is strong in this threads of late. Why is my tax money being used by the Government to troll on the internet just to burnish their image? I want my tax money back!
Too right mate!
We need the toll money. Cause we got lots of debt with TH, LTAT , Felda and others.
They don’t know how to manage money and have super big debts.
So now, Government needs a lot of money from tolls to save these Felda, TH, LTAT and others
My thoughts on this.
They are buying those highways so that they can give it to their cronies to operate and maintain them instead. That is why toll collection is still there albeit sugar coated to become congestion charge.
I’ll vote for this government again if they stay true to their manifesto which is to abolish tolls.
Dont get too excited tomorrow sure u turn…knowing nobita
Can’t hey just reduce reduce reduce the toll charge first? why cant cut 50% of the price of toll.
because of the contract and gov need compensate them i presume, long run might not feasible.
We Malaysians must change. We must give up all protectionism and favourtism. Special privileges also must stop.
Time we become like Singapore where everything is merit based
Only then we can be globally competitive. This is the main reason why car companies ran to Thailand and made it the Detroit of Asia.
Govt wasted precious 6.2b & 180m in revenue.
i want 50% discount too, but here is the reason : The collection of congestion charge will be sufficient to service the debt, as well as to finance the operation and maintenance costs of the highways without requiring additional budget allocation.
Better save our money and use it for tolls instead of buying cars that are beyond our affordability. Then 2 months later it becomes sambung bayar or tarik balik.
This is a big problem in Putrajaya.
Should just writeoff the past debt and move on.
Good Move, however major concern to provide a peak and off peak rates will cause congestion at the toll booth. if peak say 7am-9am, many cars and trucks will JAM up at the toll around 8.30-8.59am, all await for the discount to kick in. perhaps the rebate should be re-introduce back on those that use touch n go, across nation.
Are you serious la? Like there will be no jam la, because non-peak hour will have no people. You think peak/no-peak hours is like water pipe ar? Once peak hour kick in all car suddenly gone? Aiyo think la before type.
This is a good way forward to reduce our carbon footprint. It’s about time that we introduce congestion and get rid of the toll charges.
Excellent news. Complainers forget about carbon footprint because they are used to everything FREE FREE FREE.
Come on, work with the country to reduce the carbon footprint and let us aim for a cleaner anvironment.
Dont always be critical and have many dupes condemning our good Government. Show your frustration elsewhere.
It’s the other way round. It probably encourage more klang valley people to drive rather than taking public transport.
Another thing, why the hell must the government use my tax money to acquires the toll when it does not benefit me at all, me who live outside Klang Valley and never use those tolls system.
I want to see what they meant by non peak hours. If its middle of the night, then sorry it is pointless for the majority of these highway users.
You know who will benefit? The rich towkay owners of logistics & freight companies who will get their trucks to move during the night. You know who will not benefit? The poor truck drivers & logistic handlers who needs to pay toll while coming to work, and their health due to night driving & operations. When they are sleepy, accidents happen more often. So is this a grand scheme to make the rich even richer? It seems so.
Normally the key info is at the last line in their announcement.
Off peak is 11pm to 5am (ghost hour)
On the flipside, that would mean less heavy vehicles during daytime, less chances of getting into an accident with a slow lorry/truck, hence less accidents and traffic will be faster.
Statistically, most accidents aren’t with heavy vehicles but with other cars and motors. It doesn’t change anything really.
If Khazanah hadn’t lost RM6.3Billion under Nobita’s charge, we wouldn’t need to pay a single sen for the acquisition of these highways. So with this buyout we are looking at a massive outlay of RM12.5Billion. That is DOUBLE FIGURE IN BILLIONS OF RINGGIT!!!
Didn’t his boss said we got no money? Then where did this RM12Billion came from? His rear hole?
Such mega move involving mega sum of money is never a cash term even if they said its cash. There is always a twist in the technical term. A normal guy cant simply buy a Bentley or RR using cash right?
No. Government isn’t a bank nor a private entity. They can’t issue credit note for purchase, so its either by cash terms (not physical of course) or by loan. If by loan, then government need to service the loan which results in the total outlay isn’t 6.2billion but much much more than that.
Yeah, I concur on that. Thanks
Do you understand how bond work? It’s clearly stated in the article.
Bonds only work when the people have confidence in the economy & the government to buy these bonds. Otherwise, bonds are not worth the paper it is printed on. As I see currently, the confidence is at an all time low.
Bond issuance through an SPV.
Wasn’t that the reason why 1MDB got into trouble?
Khazanah isn’t buying them via SPV, they are paying for it directly which meant gomen money.
We are not talking about millions of RM but Billions. No way can the Government raise Billions via bonds especially in the short time frame to make the purchase.
Read…it’s through bond
Lol. Sacrifice sleep or pay congestion charges, 90% of users would rather pay the toll. So how is this beneficial to them. In the end, many road users are still pay tolls so what changes is there for them. Can we get Ministers to pay their own toll and the tolls for their convoy and outriders too? Walk the talk before you talklah bro!
LDP has been monopolizing the roadway of Puchong for decades…
To PT team, why cannot register anymore? So sick of pariahs using my nick.
I feel for u bro. But really only got 1 pariah, our resident basher.
Metoo same isu bro. However aside bitching abt that, govt gotta made sure those toll booth gantry still working during, free travel off-peak from 11PM-5AM.
Otherwise those drivers will zoomed past the 2m wide toll booth lane @ 200KMH… my 2cents.
More likely you still have to tap touch n go card but zero charge. Just like any new highway during trial free period.
rm180 mil / 200ml user per year. how much saving? berbaloi ke dengan penggunaan duit cukai rakyat? kenapa tak guna duit tabung?
Im no economist, but doesn’t “off-peak” and “outside of peak hours” mean the same thing?? Author please kindly clarify. Thanks
They should rephrased it, it confusing I know. As it stand:
Off-peak: Free, 1am-5am
Outside of peak periods: 30% off current toll rate
Peak periods: Same as current toll rate
Harga kereta macamana? Cukai kereta tak turun pun? Jika turun, disposal income tentu lebey. Cukai ini 100% masuk poket kerajaan. No need negotiation or takeover….lagi senang turun cukai.
Hello Mr Lim
You and I both know rakyat wont be happy a bit for this 6.3 billion just to give them peanut saving during off peak.
You know how to be popular with 6.3 billion?
Reduce the import tax for imported cars, and open AP for all.
How to open AP? Certain people need protectionism and pampered. This will never happen
Of course the PM needs to pamper and take care of us, we helped him back to office so it’s natural we were doing it for our benefit.
what to worry? ask new SPRM chief to hunt down la. unless she was put there for just 1 case…
Guan Eng logic
Sarawak reserve = rm30billion will bankrupt in 3 years.
Penang reserve = rm4billion.. Very excelent governnent..
Penang bridge toll free?
Dont talk about the Penang bridges. Sg Nyior toll still not yet abolish despite their promise more than 10 years ago.
Good
But need more police to make rounds when near the peak/off peak hour.. prevent people from stopping roadside to wait for the discount
so this only benefits the ppl in Peninsular, particularly the Klang Valley ppl..
Give free toll la.. As you promise GE14..
Guys, the way congestion charges works is completely different than traditional toll system. Just like in the UK, vehicles are tracked based on license plates which then checks in the system if the owners had already pre-paid for the congestion charges. Vehicles that enter the restricted zone where congestion charges applies, will have to pay for the fees.
It doesn’t involve any toll or gantry system. If you had not pre-paid for the congestion charges, you will be issued a hefty fine for driving your vehicle into the restricted zone during peak hours. This encourages people to use public transports than own vehicles when travelling into city area.
Incomparable. In UK big cities with congestion charges, they have efficient alternative modes of transportation for peak periods, like public transportation or biking (very popular in London). You tried biking in KL during peak periods before? Try it and see if the alternatives during peak periods are sufficient for you. Easy to say compare with countries half the world away but that is just nonsense.
Dont worry. When PRU is near, we can see parties will compete and will definitely offer toll free to counter attack PH. Just wait.
Use tax money to build highway. Crony Concessionaire collects toll. Use tax money to buy back from Concessionaire. Once again gomen punish the middle class to save B40 who don’t even pay tax
The toll has expiry date. Congestion charges goes on for ever.
Ok cool… now lets do something about the excise tax can? The one where if you use your car everyday of not you still pay. You know… the one people don’t think about.
paying more than 50% of the company (Gamuda this case) market capital and think this is logic, only the fake-finance can come out such idea of value asset…That is saying these 4 highways is more than 50% of Gamuda business, so figure it out..
Its a failed valuation…so its tax payers money go to public listed company buying asset, and how about the maintenance down the road? how many billions to spend!
Might as well use the money to take control of Gamuda! so all earning will be own by Gov also
the question should ask, how much it is going to spend on the maintenance next! and the tol money i not surprise not able to cover due to lousy management, and then after few years, proclaim making a lost and sold back to Gamuda with RM1.0 since lots of holes to fix.
Marked this.
tolls. govt is not transparent about what was the cost to build, the volume of traffic, the roi. toll should be reduced and managements centralised. govt smokescreen
besides ranting for toll free, there is a short cut for it.
Leave your body and float away lah…
Wait, that is not free. The ceremony still need to pay.