The Malaysian government’s proposed RM6.2 billion takeover of four highway concessionaires has been paused for a re-examination of the offered price, according to government sources. Singapore’s Straits Times (ST), via the Malay Mail, reported that some in the federal government, including cabinet members, believed the offer was excessive.
Some argued that the finance ministry’s projected revenue, backed by congestion charge collection, may not allow for the acquisition to be self-funded as presented currently. “The whole matter (Gamuda proposal) is on hold pending a full review,” the ST quoted an unnamed minister as saying. The Singaporean daily added that the issue was causing friction within the Pakatan Harapan coalition government.
The same minister said finance minister Lim Guan Eng had presented the plan to the public and made offers for the concessionaires – which are linked to Gamuda Bhd – without the agreement of the cabinet. Gamuda, which is agreeable to the buyout offers, is leading the ambitious RM46 billion Penang Transport Masterplan. Lim was the chief minister of Penang before last year’s general election.
This link was fuelling detractors’ suspicions that the two issues were connected, the ST report said. The report also quotes an unnamed DAP leader who somewhat confirms the internal resistance to the takeover proposal. “The finance ministry is of the view that the proposal is good, but it has taken on an unfortunate political twist,” the DAP person said.
In June, the Minister of Finance Inc 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.
Lim had said that the takeover bid is being done in the name of public interest, and with the congestion charge system in place, the highways will be toll-free during off-peak hours and toll rates will be 30% lower outside of peak hours.
“This is because the government is not an organisation looking to make a profit. We have taken out the element of profit and are doing it for the public good unlike private enterprises which must make a return,” he said.
The minister stressed that the highway takeover move will not incur cost to the government and that toll rates would not be increased. This is because the takeover will be financed through bond issuance, with congestion charges used to pay off the debt. The plan will also see consumers save up to RM180 million in toll charges during the concession period, he added.
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ini bukan u-turn, ini tarik handbrake punya j-turn!!!
waze suh jalan sesat. Biar lambat, asal selamat.
Janji Dicapati
Not U-turn, just waiting another 200 investors via crowd funding before get project.
More like Bro Nobita is waiting for Arab sheikhs to buyout the highways and donate back to the gomen.
What’s new from the U turn gomen… Yawn..The only person that can make announcement 1st before informing the cabinet and get away with it, is the great Tun M.
Smart decision again by U turn gomen. The Kesas highway concession is set to expire in 4 years. Abolish tolls, cost of living sure gone up.
Ah Lim, we got bigger problems lah. You pandai pandai kira dunno where tiba tiba 6 Billion, like money drop from sky ah?
Aiyoh, help kick start the economy first lah. You ask wife go pasar see how much food price has gone up. You go talk to fresh grads and ask them how long no jobs. You go ask that young couple if they have enough savings to put down payment for that small size apartment. We are all suffering, gaji tak naik sudah bertahun tahun tapi cost of living makin naik. We voted PH not only to get rid of that Kleptocratic gomen but also to make a better future for ourselves.
Is OK, take money to build sport car, organise the F1, build flyingcar is priority, who created the toll system, your ask toll father kill it own son?
Is OK, take money to build Felda, Putrajaya, cyberjaya, KLIA, klcc, Bkt jalil sukan. Pffftt
Other than the first which benefited hundreds of thousands of rakyat, the rest are made by who? Yes, your favourite 90+ year old PM.
If I remember correctly, Nobita was really bad at math.
Whatever offers put on table, comes with something beneath it..
UTurn have been expected. Uturning is here. Should rename his portfolio from Finance Minister to UTurn Minister and charge him to kickstart more uturn projects on the road. He is more adept at that than seriously looking at our failing economy.
Make policies atas angin saja. Say want to do this, want to do that before election. Now after election still the same attitude, says want to do so many things but they forget now they’re in Government, what they said must be carried out. So after they realised their stupid acts and words, they retracted what they said one by one or make some lame excuse like they were misquoted. When newsites insisted they weren’t misquoted, these ministers threaten to gag order them, bar them from pressies, or want to sue them. These kind of capalang ministers aren’t fit to lead us. Sheer brief moment of madness that drove the rakyat to elect them now we all suffer from their incompetence.
Say want to do this, want to do that before election. Now we see the long Q to Sg Buloh …
The way he runs thing, he can’t even manage to run Sg Buloh. If Botak Chin were there, Botak Chin would easily have escaped.
Hmm..just wondering..is it fair for the rest of malaysian citizen as tax payers?6bil ringgit will be spent just to benefit not even 20% of road users(estimation)..lots of things can be done with 6bil ringgit..totally agree with toll reduction..not “pengambil alihan”just my opinion..
You are absolutely correct
6b ringgit will be funded by congestion charge which will be paid by the very same toll users. so, no extra burden on the rest of citizens staying outside klang valley.
if there is no 3rd national car project, buying over the tolls concessionaire is possible.
What’s with the u turn? Easy. Blame Najib, 1MDB and previous government. *yawn*
u turn is the same bargaining strategy which government had used to lower the cost of ECRL and MRT 3. if the contractor / concessionaire dont want to give discount then threaten to walk away and cancel the deal. clever government saves our rakyat compared to the free spending previous government which squandered our money.
Ah Lim, how you compute that 180 Mil consumers saving ar. You take a pee and made that u turn ar?
I suggest Paultan tone down when reporting this kind of news. I get depressed!!
New hope becomes false hope.
both gov also kaw2 kencing rakyat…dunno who to believe now…..
Easy. Lets see:
One didn’t promised you all that wonderful things, but work on the ground to make some of it happen.
The other promised you all that wonderful things, but choose to blame the previous management when they couldn’t make any of it happen.
Choose which is the lesser of these 2 in next election. Choose wisely this time.
Kall nk tgk org bodoh yg berlagak pandai, inilah dia.
Kalo nk tgk org bodoh yg berlagak pandai, inilah dia.
Everyda kena kencing.. Where is free toll? This is not what I want when voting PH..
Hope not wrong decimal point for this time.. I hope so.. So scary under Uncle Lim as a MoF..
Why are you still talking?
Apologize for all your defaming first.
Especially your statement of the previous government stealing GST money.
PH is more suitable to be opposition rather than gomen..already 1 year been a gomen still thinking like opposition..
As expected…..U turn.
Whatever whichever the govt, all very good sweet-sweet bed talk only.
Another example how people vote for stuff they don’t understand, since that money Pakatan ‘saved’ is NOT spent on Malaysian citizens as promised.
“Democracy has a major issue: the dumb are also allowed to participate.”
So tired will this new uturn decision.. Come on.. Tau buat kerja ka tatau buat kerja? U turn uturn uturn all the time..
All got conned by fake news from Sg lol
You mean like how we got conned with all that 1MDB story and GST money lost & Birkin diamond stories? You might be right.
once it’s on hold, there is a possibility it will not materialized.
it will probably materialize similar to the revival of ECRL and MRT 3. government is just playing hardball negotiation tactics to force the contractor or concessionaire to lower the cost
Hopefully Tony Pua and Ong Kian Ming as the brains trust of LGE read this and know that they are over their head and just get lost out of the FInance Ministry and have competent people in their place. Who gave them the position is the question.
What are the purposes of build highway in Klang valley??is it really to avoid traffic congestion during peak hours??the answer is no..the PM4 government just wanna doing business with his own rakyats and making tons of money for his crony…that’s it…