DAP lawmaker Tony Pua has thanked former premier Najib Abdul Razak for suggesting that he help the Pakatan Harapan government abolish all highway tolls. 

“I thank Najib for his confidence in me. I will submit my suggestions to the government,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby this evening.

In its election manifesto, Harapan had promised to abolish tolls in stages if it forms the federal government.

Earlier this week, Works Minister Baru Bian said the government faced significant challenges regarding this as it would cost more than RM400 billion in compensation.

Pua, who is also the special officer to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, clarified that the RM400 billion price tag included projected profits on top of concession contract values.

He said if the tolls are abolished, the government would only compensate the value of concession contracts.

“We will pay compensation based on the rate included in the contracts, which is the cost of building roads, not including future profits.

“Therefore, the amount needed to abolish tolls will not be close to the RM400 billion figure,” he said.

Baru clarifies

When met today, Baru said he agreed with Pua’s explanation and denied inflating the RM400 billion figure.

“The (figure) was based on a report made by Pemandu (Associates) in the past.

“You can’t say that we inflated (the figure) because that is the figure we got from an earlier report,” he told members of the press when asked.

Pemandu was previously parked in the Prime Minister’s Department until it became a private consultancy in 2017.

MCA Wanita vice-president Ong Chong Sven previously accused Baru of exaggerating the figure.

Baru had previously said that the government will postpone the abolition of tolls until the country’s economic situation stabilised.

He also said that the election promise had been made without clarity on the nation’s finances.