Chong Teng Aun, a 40-year-old company manager, commutes daily from the Juru toll plaza to Bukit Tambun toll plaza in Penang.

Recently, he discovered that he could be paying more for the toll charge for the distance travelled on that daily route.

He claimed that highway operator Plus Expressways Berhad (Plus) was overcharging its users with different measurement on the payable toll.

According to him, Plus is currently charging that stretch for RM1.10 or an amount that is equivalent to 8km, according to its new toll rate of RM0.136 per kilometre which took effect on Jan 1.

But Chong recently discovered that the stretch is only a distance of 5.8km. The measurement was done with his car's tachometer.

"This means that the correct charge should be RM0.788 or round it up to RM0.80 only," he told malaysiakini .

"Even if my car's tachometer is not the official instrument to measure the distance but the difference of 2.2km is way too big to ignore. Furthermore, my car is not old," he added.

Two systems

According to him, repeated measurements with his car's tachometer on the same stretch showed it is 5.8km. This also lead to his concerns of the accuracy of toll charges around the country.

"We, the expressway users, have always take it for granted and believe in their measurement. But during the recent 10 percent toll hike , I was curious of their toll charges and decided to measure it," Chong related as to what prompted him to take the measurement.

He claimed that the public may have been deceived for years should there is a shortchange. He has also lodged an official complaint to Plus and the Consumers Association of Penang.

Plus currently is using two forms of toll calculations, namely the open system and closed system.

The open system is fixed toll fare regardless of the distance traveled while the closed system is toll fare charged on the distance travelled. The Juru-Bukit Tambun stretch is using the latter system.

Contacted on the matter today, Plus corporate communication head Khalilah Mohd Talha explained that the toll fare for the closed system is not calculated from toll plaza to toll plaza, but from the entry and exit points of the toll plaza to the Limit of Maintenance Responsibility (LMR).

As for the Juru-Bukit Tambun stretch, she said it was calculated from the border of the Penang Bridge to just before the roundabout after the Bukit Tambun (south) toll plaza.

Amendment made

However, Chong countered with a different version of the closed system calculation that was available on Plus official website.

According to the website, under the closed system, the transit ticket which is collected from the toll plaza on entering the expressway and surrendered at the exit toll plaza is used to calculate the amount of toll payable based on the distance between the point of entry and exit.

"In this case, I do not take the transit ticket from th border of Penang Bridge but from the Juru toll plaza and exit at Bukit Tambun toll plaza," Chong said.

Responding to this, Plus' Khalilah claimed that was a mistake made on the company website.

"Our website content is outsourced ... amendments will be made," she said.

When malaysiakini carried out a search on the Plus website at about 5.40pm, the classification of the closed system has since been changed to "toll fares charged based on the distance between the entry plaza and the exit plaza plus the distance from the plaza to the LMR".

However, what puzzled Chong now is with the new calculation formula, Plus may have been making losses in the Juru-Bukit Tambun stretch because the stretch is more that the 8km it is charging now.

The said distance is estimated at least not less than 15km.