Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said the recently increased toll rates for five highways in the Klang Valley should not be as high 60 percent as traffic volumes have increased several fold since the concessionaire agreements were signed.


 Mahathir also admitted that toll concession agreements were not well-conceived during his tenure as prime minister and added that he suspected the highway operators were now reaping huge profits from the toll hikes.


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 Since Jan 1, the toll rates for five highways, namely the Shah Alam highway, the Cheras-Kajang highway, the Kuala Lumpur-Karak highway, the Guthrie Corridor expressway and the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong highway saw increases of between 20 to 60 percent in their rates.


 "But I notice that the traffic volume has increased five times. The income of the highway companies must have increased. To pay toll also is difficult. Information should be provided," he said in Putrajaya today.


 He was speaking to reporters after a press conference on the Perdana Global Peace Organisation's Third Global Peace Forum to be held in Kuala Lumpur from Feb 5 to 7. Mahathir is chairman of the foundation.


 Mahathir said that the toll hikes could be justified if they were not as high as announced by the government.


 The former premier said that parts of agreements with the highway concessionaires were not well drawn up during his tenure and hinted that the cabinet could have done a better job.


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 "The cabinet is not made up of experts. They are made up by politicians and some politicians like myself can be very stupid. What happens when you have an agreement is that the officers make the agreement and the agreement is sent to the cabinet and usually the small print is not there.


 "Cabinet merely passes on the basis of principle. They do not really study the implication of some passages in the agreement," he said.


 "I give you an example of the things that can happen when you leave it to the officers and the cabinet doesn't study it very well.


 "We made an agreement to purchase a battleship. In the agreement, it says that if there is a delay, then the company would compensate the government.


 "But if the delay is more than six months then the company would not need to compensate the government. And the delay was more than two years," he said.


 
 
 Renegotiations mooted
 
 


 Mahathir claimed that he was unhappy with such agreements made by the Malaysian government and that he later gave specific instructions for a check list of points to be included in all agreements.


 "We did not have very much experience. We didn't know about growth and reaction from people. Civil servants don't think of reaction as much as politicians. They think they see a reasonable agreement and they send it to the cabinet and the cabinet okays it. And now we are stuck," he said.


 The former premier said new agreements might be reached with highway concessionaires. "I think the companies can be reasonable. Provided that the renegotiation does not result in them losing money.


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 Asked by reporters whether he felt the toll agreements were lopsided in that there was no cap in terms of the concessionaire's profit margin, Mahathir claimed there was a provision that dealt with such a situation.


 "If there is an increase in traffic, and the company collects more than the projected amount, then the government has a share. If the projected traffic does not happen, and the amount collected is less, then the government has to compensate.


 "I think the traffic volume has increased quite a lot, but I don't know. We don't have the figures. I drive a lot, as you know, I see the traffic jams also. I know that they must be collecting quite a bit of money," he said.


 Mahathir also said
 
 <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/61770" target="_blank">
 
 a toll hike protest
 
 </a>
 
 which saw some 2,000 people participating along the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP) highway on Sunday near Bandar Sunway 'was fine'.


 "
 
 Dia ada peaceful demo tak apalah
 
 .
 
 Masa saya tak berapa
 
 peaceful. (If they have peaceful protests it is fine. During my time, it was not so peaceful). We are a democratic country. It's fine to have a little demonstration," he said.


 Related report:
 
 <a href="http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/61820" target="_blank">
 Huge mandate: 'Pak Lah may not have it again'
 </a>

He says that his cabinet could have done a better job and they should have paid more attention to the 'small print'.


Toll agreements poorly drawn up, concedes Dr M

~RM12

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