Speaking to FMT, former works minister Fadillah Yusof said the former Barisan Nasional government had looked into taking over the highways but ultimately decided against it due to the huge financial burden.
“Even just compensating toll concessionaires to avoid increases in tolls costs a lot,” he said, responding to an FMT report of a proposal to take over PLUS Malaysia Bhd and its liabilities for over RM35 billion.
Under the proposal, the government would collect tolls for an additional 20 years but apply an 18% discount to road users. There would be no increases in toll rates, saving the government billions in compensation to toll companies.
Fadillah said the former BN government had felt it was better to allow existing concessions to run their course and use the money to improve and widen public transport access.
“We felt that it was better to subsidise public transport, give people incentives to take buses and trains rather than use private vehicles.”
The present government should look into such policies instead of buying up the toll highways.
“The government can identify people who need the subsidy and give them free passes.”
If at all the government was looking to avoid toll increases, Fadillah said it could look to compensate toll operators so that public transport vehicles would not pay higher tolls, thus keeping their costs lower.
“But once you pay any kind of compensation, you eat into the public coffers and this means there will be less development funds available,” he said.
“We must remember that many areas and people do not benefit from the taking over of tolls, especially the rural areas in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.”
Fadillah, who is MP for Petrajaya, said toll charges were imposed only when used and that there were other free options to toll highways.
Veteran transport consultant Rosli Azad Khan also said the toll concessions should be allowed to expire and the highways then handed over to the government.
The government’s privatisation plan, he said was initiated so that the limited public funds could be channeled to other areas.
“It is better to spend those billions on health, schools, public transport, and other social services, and help the bottom 40 (B40). The B40 Group don’t benefit from the government’s purchase of tolls,” he told FMT.
But Universiti Tun Abdul Razak economist Barjoyai Bardai said the government should take over toll highways but not abolish toll collections.
“They can treat the toll collection as a form of targeted tax. They can collect billions and channel the funds to maintaining the roads and building other infrastructure.”
He said if the government took over highways and didn’t collect tolls, a lot of public funds would be used to maintain those highways.