It does not solve the problem but only pushes increases in toll to a further date at a huge cost of RM400 million in compensation to highway concessionaire companies.
The government has failed to find permanent solutions to the problem. Its failure has now cost RM400 million as compensation to the highway concessionaire companies. These monies could be channeled more effectively to other more important areas to help the people.
On the one hand they say no toll hikes but on the other hand they pay huge amounts of compensation. This compensation ultimately comes from the people. This is where we will see an overall increase in prices of goods and services to pay this compensation.
The government should stop pushing the problem away. It must find a permanent solution to it and it must not delay any further as delays will cost huge losses to the people in form of compensation.
The government must find ways to renegotiate the concession agreements. There should be limits to profit margins for these contracts and their duration and if there are none, then Parliament should legislate to provide for it.
Such laws should be designed to deal with contracts which burden the people. These laws should allow such contracts to be reviewed periodically.
I have raised this many times in Parliament. There have been promises for the last 5 years by the government to find solutions to the problem but quite obviously, nothing has become of it.
It is disappointing to hear that the government has failed to reach any solution to the escalating toll problems until now. They are, to my mind, not serious in trying to find permanent solutions to the problem.