Not true Prasarana subsidised from day one, ex-CEO tells Loke

Summary

• Former Prasarana CEO Ridza Abdoh Salleh refutes Transport Minister Anthony Loke’s claim that Prasarana had been subsidised from day one.

• Ridza states that Prasarana was initially self-sustaining from ridership revenue and only became reliant on subsidies after he left in 2005.

In a continuation of a debate, with months in between replies, a former Prasarana Malaysia CEO has rebutted Transport Minister Anthony Loke’s assertion that the GLC had been subsidised from day one.

Ridza Abdoh Salleh, who was Prasarana’s first CEO and served from 2002 to 2005, said that the company sustained itself on revenue from ridership from its rail lines in the beginning.

“Prasarana started with zero sen in the bank account.

“By the end of the month (September 2002), the revenue collected could pay all the operating costs, signifying the achievement of the farebox ratio to be 1:0,” he said in a LinkedIn post.

Ridza said Prasarana had built on the momentum achieved by Putra LRT before the government took over the rail operator - together with Star LRT.

He added that by early 2005, Prasarana had recorded a revenue of RM186 million per year, with RM50 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation.

“However, after I left Prasarana in Jun 2005, from a distance, I could see the systems installed earlier were slowly dismantled, causing it to rely heavily on financial subsidies, which is a pity.

“Prasarana had proven to be independent of government subsidy for nearly a decade, from the beginning of its operation in 1998 (as the two LRT companies) until 2006,” he said.

Ridza was responding to Loke’s remarks in October last year, in which the minister said that Prasarana had been given subsidies from the start to enable the public to use rail services that were cheap and efficient.

Loke in turn was responding to remarks Ridza made in August 2024, in which the former Prasarana CEO warned that subsidies would kill the company’s motivation and innovation.

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