Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the one who has betrayed the rakyat, not the person who had leaked information on the impending highway toll hike, said PKR.

Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin said this in reference to the premier saying the person responsible for the leak had betrayed the trust of the cabinet.

Sim ( right ) said the government should be transparent in all its policies, including the possible hike in toll charges.

“Any attempt to hide the toll hike from the rakyat is a form of betrayal of the rakyat’s trust,” he said in a statement today.

The PKR parliamentarian also said the government had thus far betrayed the rakyat by hiding the terms of highway toll concessions from public view.

“Until now, no one knows the terms of highway toll concessions and everything is under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

“The terms are very much on the side of concessionaires, most of whom are Umno-BN cronies,” he claimed.

Sim said this has burdened the rakyat through hikes in toll charges, which occurs every two years.

'Don't use GST funds'

He also warned the government not to use revenue collected from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to pay toll concessionaires should they eventually decide to back down from the hike due to public anger.

Sim also noted in the 2015 budget the government had allocated RM459 million to pay compensation to toll companies.

However during the budget debates Deputy Works Minister Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin said the government has to pay RM560 million to the concessionaires for the hike in toll charges.

This, he said, means the government is still short of RM101 million owing to the concessionaires.

“GST collections have reached RM6 billion in two months. I want to warn the government to be truthful to the rakyat if they want to pay concessionaires using collections from the GST.

“If the government wants to use collections from the GST to pay toll companies, they have to declassify highway toll concessions.

“Let the rakyat know where the GST they paid for goes to. There should be no taxation without accountability,” he said.

Najib yesterday lamented the leak had generated unnecessary negative sentiments towards his administration.

He also stressed the decision to increase toll charges had not been finalised.

Sources however told Malaysiakini that the majority of cabinet members were in favour of the hike involving 16 to 19 highways.