 How did Putrajaya come up with the incredulous amount of RM400 billion as the cost of buying back the highway concessions in Malaysia, a DAP lawmaker asked today. Party national publicity chief Tony Pua said the construction costs of the 26 tolled highways in Malaysia amounted to a mere RM28.5 billion. "The most expensive highway in Malaysia is the North-South Expressway which cost RM5.95 billion to build," he said in a statement. Pua questioned how Putrajaya could have come up with a figure which is more than 14 times the amount it cost to construct the 26 highways in the country. "Works Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof must be out of his mind to claim that it will cost RM400 billion to re-acquire all the tolled highways in Malaysia," he said. "Is Putrajaya attempting to compensate the highway concessionaires for the loss of future profits?" he asked. Pua said that the highway concession agreements clearly stated that Putrajaya did not need to make such compensation payments. He said if the RM400 billion was to compensate concessionaires for the loss of future profits, it defeated the purpose of such an exercise in the first place. "The government might as well let the concessionaires earn the profit over the next 20 years or so instead of laughing all to the bank in one trip." Pua said with the exception of the North-South Expressway and the Penang Bridge, all the concession agreements had clauses which allowed Putrajaya to buy back the concessions based on the cost of construction with the guarantee that the concessionaires had received an annual return of 12% for each prior year of operation. "So if we assume that all the highways in Malaysia did not make a single sen of profit since they began operating, then the buyback cost will merely be a maximum of RM50 billion. "This is one eighth of Fadillah's estimate of RM400 billion," he said. Moreover, Pua said, most of the highway concessionaires had made fantastic profits in excess of 12% per annum since they began operating. "This means that Putrajaya does not need to compensate for insufficient profit during the operating years. "Instead of discussing buybacks, perhaps the government should focus on highways which are making unreasonable profits, such as the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong." Pua said the LDP had a net profit margin in excess of 40%, which was at the rakyat's expense. Yesterday, Fadillah said in Parliament that Putrajaya could not take over highway operations in Malaysia as it would be deemed as nationalisation. The takeover could cast a negative image on Putrajaya among investors and also have a negative effect on the capital market, he said. "Based on a study by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu), the proposal to take over all the highways will cost the government about RM400 billion," Fadillah said. As of the end of 2012, Putrajaya had paid RM2.8 billion in compensation to the highway concessionaires, Fadillah said in a written reply to Mohamed Hanipa Maidin (PAS-Serdang). Putrajaya had initially wanted to hike intra-city toll rates this year despite Barisan Nasional's GE13 manifesto which pledged to reduce the rates gradually. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar had said last year that it was impossible to stop toll rate hikes due to the concession agreements between the government and highway companies. However, the government relented in the face of growing opposition on the ground against price hikes and subsidy cuts that had made ministers the butt of jokes in Malaysia. Instead, it forked out RM400 million to the various concessionaires. – April 3, 2014. TMI
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