KUALA LUMPUR – The federal government cannot afford to abolish tolls on all highways due to the excessive amount of compensation that would have to be paid to companies contracted to operate them.
Senior Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the matter was also known by the previous government, which was why the promise to abolish the tolls made in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) manifesto for the 2018 general election could not be implemented later.
“The government does not have the ability to abolish tolls because the compensation to be paid to concessionaires is very large,” he said.
“That is why even PH could not implement it, because they knew that in reality it is impossible. That is also the reason we try not to burden the people, so that there is a win-win situation for all parties,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Fadillah (Petra Jaya-BN) said this in response to a supplementary question from Datuk Mohd Fasiah Mohd Fakih (Sabak Bernam-Bersatu) who wanted to know whether the government planned to abolish tolls in the future.
Meanwhile, Fadillah also said that the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology now used at toll booths is to help smoothen rides along toll centres and reduce traffic congestion.
He said the RFID system allows 1,000 vehicles to pass through a toll point within an hour, compared to only 450 vehicles in the same period with the use of Touch N’ Go (TnG) cards.
“Actually, for the long term, we hope our toll system will no longer use crossbars, so that vehicle users will no longer have to slow down or stop.
“According to data, RFID users have now increased by up to 18% compared to only 11% before. We will improve on the system’s weaknesses from time to time,” he said.
On December 16, the government announced its decision to implement RFID toll payments on the North South Expressway (PLUS) route between Juru in Penang to Skudai in Johor.
The move, however, angered road users who claimed to have had to deal with severe traffic congestion due to the system’s failure.
A few days later, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that highway users should be given the choice on whether to use RFID, TnG, or SmartTAG to pay for tolls. – The Vibes, March 1 , 2022
