YOURSAY 'A responsible government must stop pandering to the greed of the toll operators but look after the needs of the already heavily burdened rakyat.'

Toll operators earning 'obscene' profits, says PKR

your say, YoursaySpongeBob: In spite of making obscene profits, why are these toll operators not carrying out their corporate social responsibility. After all, these toll operators are Umno cronies. Are these operators having a memory lapse?

Because of the BN government, they are able to get these projects and huge financing through the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). The people who helped them are the same ones being burdened.

Omega: Actually if you look around the world these days you can notice that we are becoming a case of a snake that is slowly eating up its own tail.

That is why I decided to retire early a few years ago because I know no matter how hard I work or how smart I am, at the end the extra financial gain which I can eke out is very marginal, so I had rather take it easy and enjoy some quality time and take up PM Najib Razak's advice to 'tukar gaya hidup' (change my lifestyle).

No, don't get me wrong I am not making fun of the PM, I have to make a lot of sacrifice too like giving up getting married and having kids. In doing so, I have so much more free time and much less financial burden to bear.

Jeremy Ng: This is BN's reward to the public for returning them to power. With all the price increases from petrol, sugar, toll, assessment rates, electricity, etc, etc (probably more to come), it is high time, Najib revised his so-called BR1M to RM6,500.

His original increase is meaningless. Given the poor federal government management, it is 'rubbing salt to wound' with the proposed pay increase to lawmakers. In fact, their pay and allowances should be reduced.

Lamborghini: We have a government that is more concerned for the profits of toll operators who are already making obscene profits and squeezing the rakyat even more so that the obscene profits gets totally obscene.

The tolls are becoming the vehicle for daylight robbery of vehicles that are using the highways. A responsible government must stop pandering to the greed of the toll operators but look after the needs of the already heavily burdened rakyat.

NoCorruption: With so much profit for the toll operators, we still have the useless SmartTag system that cannot operate properly. Half the time, I pass the toll booth, I see car reversing at the SmartTag lane.

I remember Kesas and Sprint using their own tag system which is very good but they have to change to the sub-standard SmartTag due to some reasons (so that no one will know there is better system and Rangkaian Segar can made all the profit with their ‘Touch and Go').

NewMalaysia: As I've said before, all the BN supporters who have voted for BN also got to suffer all these price hikes.

For those who voted against BN, it is a struggle we just have to endure, but to have those BN supporters to suffer together with us, I think it isn't that bad after all.

Wahid's toll hike comment patronising, says PKR

Onyourtoes: Minister in Prime Minister's Department Abdul Wahid Omar, you may be a former corporate bigwig but let me remind you that you are nothing but a poster boy being used by Umno. You must first answer the following questions before asking for more toll hike.

1. Why are concession agreements a secret? How are we to judge whether the agreements are fair when the terms of the agreements are not disclosed?

2. Why must tolls be imposed on all new roads, including many within cities? Are these not the responsibilities of the government to provide as cities expand over time? Where did all the allocations for public infrastructure go?

3. What alternative roads are you talking about when signage and other infrastructure are hardly present on these roads? How many hours do you think is reasonable for a car to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Penang using alternative routes - 10 hours?

4. How do we know the toll rates are reasonable? Remember highways are public utilities; do you know what is the reasonable ROI (return of investment) of public utilities? In the United States, it is not more than 15 percent. How many percent do our highway operators get (don't forget they are doing a risk-free business)?

5. What about "cost padding", especially when highway projects were never transparently awarded? What is there to prevent highway operators to "cost-pad" their projects to justify higher tolls.

Don't pretend to act dumb. Everybody in Malaysia knows highway concessions, like all other privatisations, are blood-sucking schemes meant to enrich the cronies first and foremost and serving the public interest least and last.

If we have paid road tax, car tax, driving licence fee, tax on all car accessories, summons and other levies, why must we still pay toll when using the roads? You go to United Kingdom very often I am sure, do you find toll imposed there?

Sarajun Hoda: The toll concession agreements must be seriously flawed. The people involved in the making and signing these agreements betrayed the Malaysian people by inking terms that serve their cronies at the people's expense.

These people and the minister responsible must be punished for cheating the people and made to pay damages.

Quigonbond: Abdul Wahid must have come from another universe. The argument about using alternative roads have been raised since S Samy Vellu's time and the argument does not work simply because not all tolled roads have alternatives. Shame on him for not having his ears on the ground.

RKR: Who are these concessionaires really? They are companies belonging to Umno. So subsidising the toll and raising toll rates is double whammy for Umno. That's why it's the richest political party in the world.

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