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KTMB reliant on govt financial assistance

KUALA LUMPUR: The financial position of Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) is less than stable, according to the second series of the Auditor-General’s Report 2018 on the management of Federal Government companies.

Auditors from the Auditor-General’s Department came to this conclusion after they found the liability borne by KTMB have surpassed the assets belonging to the country’s oldest railway service, which recorded a difference of RM 1.468 billion last year.

Findings by the audit team also showed that every year, the KTMB was relying on financial assistance from the Finance Ministry.

“From 1992 until July this year, KTMB had been receiving RM1.46 billion in financial assistance from the Ministry of Finance,” said the report, which was published today.

Apart from the less competitive management module, the report said KTMB’s two main services, namely the intercity train and KTM Komuter service, were more towards fulfilling social responsibility rather than being business oriented.

The report noted that KTMB’s two main services recorded losses of between RM39.82 and RM77.76 million from 2016 until July this year.

“From 2015 until 2017, the KTM Komuter service was the largest contributor for the company’s income.

“However, the service incurred losses after factoring its operation cost.

“The existence of four entities in its management module affected the KTMB’s operation, in which, the company was unable to completely come to a decision on matters related to the usage of its assets,” the report said.

Other weaknesses highlighted in the report included the delay in the completion of the construction of the Klang Valley Electrified Double Track project. The delay, the report concluded, had resulted in commuters switching their mode of transport.

This has subsequently affected KTMB’s projected target in daily passengers, which had recorded a decline from 2016 until July this year.

The report also highlighted weaknesses in KTMB’s ticketing system, which the audit team, categorised as “significant”.

From December 2016 until July this year, KTMB received a total of 36,860 complaints about its ticketing system.

“The new ticket system is also found to be inefficient because reporting different revenue receipts,” said the report.

It was reported that KTMB was beleaguered with technical glitch related to advance ticket sales caused by bulk purchases at counters and the slow-loading MobTicket mobile application.

Some passengers at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station said they had to queue for more than two hours for tickets during the disruption.

KTMB chief executive officer, Datuk Kamarulzaman Zainal had said that the high volume of customers trying to purchase tickets had caused a disruption to its online ticket server.

Since then, KTMB has taken several immediate measures to address the issue including increasing Internet bandwidth capacity from 100Mbps to 200Mbps.

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