KUALA LUMPUR: There will be no toll hikes for four highways this year and the next.
Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said the government will pay RM59.77mil as compensation to four highway concessionaires for deferring the toll fare hikes.
He said the Cabinet had agreed on Oct 12 to postpone the restructuring of toll rates for the year 2016 and 2017. He said the Cabinet had agreed that compensation would paid if the concessionaires do not increase tolls for the Senai-Desaru Expressway (SDE), Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE), Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL), and Kajang-Seremban Highway (Lekas).
“This means that there will be no toll hikes for the four highways this year and in 2017," he said in his winding up speech on the Supply Bill 2017 in Parliament today.
Fadillah was responding to Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Taiping), who had asked the minister to clarify if there will be a toll hike at the four highways next year.
Fadilah noted that toll rates for the North-South Highway (PLUS) were restructured in 1999, 2002, and 2011 in an effort to reduce the impact of the toll hike.
He had said previously that the last PLUS toll hike was in 2005 and since then, the toll rates had not increased even though the agreement provides for toll increases in 2008 and 2011.