Re: Not bad being a Malaysian (at least in JB)
Toll operator's profit from hikes 'astronomical'
Shannon Teoh | The Straits Times | Thursday, Nov 13, 2014
Toll operator Malaysian Resources Corp (MRCB) is reaping "exorbitant profits", Malaysia's opposition said yesterday after the government revealed that 1.5 million paying vehicles crossed the Causeway in August, following a toll hike that has begun to hit Johor's economy.
The Works Ministry, in a written answer to a question in Parliament last week, said that in the month following the Aug 1 hike, 729,657 vehicles paid the toll to enter Singapore while 721,384 paid it to enter Johor.
The toll for a passenger car is RM16.50 (S$6.40) for a round trip instead of RM2.90 before, while it is RM13.30 per two-way trip for buses, on top of the RM2.30 already paid to head north.
The opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) estimated MRCB will collect close to RM11 million (S$4.3 million) a month after the toll hike. This is equivalent to the compensation the government has paid MRCB since 2012, when the toll hike was to have come into effect but was delayed ahead of last year's general election.
DAP's assistant publicity chief Teo Nie Ching yesterday said this means that the government- linked MRCB will have raked in RM4.3 billion by the end of its 34-year concession, nearly four times the RM1.2 billion it cost to build the Eastern Dispersal Link highway, which terminates at the Johor Baru immigration complex.
"The profit that they are going to make from toll collection is still exorbitant and astronomical," Ms Teo, a Johor-based MP, said, adding that this was before taking into consideration future toll hikes written into the concession deal and increasing traffic volume over the next three decades.
On Oct 1, Singapore matched Malaysia's toll hike, bringing the cost of a round trip to $13, from just $2.35 as recently as July.
The double hike caused alarm, especially over the chilling economic impact it will have on Johor's Iskandar region - crucial to both sides - which has just begun to boom in the past two years after a quiet start.
Even some leaders in the Malaysian ruling party were critical of the hike, with Public Accounts Committee chief Nur Jazlan Mohamad telling The Straits Times that "both governments have to decide if they want Iskandar or not, because instead of promoting it, they are imposing a de facto tax".
Ms Teo said Kuala Lumpur "should immediately declassify the concession agreement with MRCB so Malaysians will know if our government has again abused its power to enrich its crony."
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