COMMENT | Beware of ‘potholes’ in toll road restructuring

COMMENT | On April 4, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob proudly announced toll rates for Klang Valley highways will be fixed until the end of the concession period.

This involves the Kesas (concession expiry date: 2028), LDP (2030), Sprint (2034), and Smart (2042).

The announcement struck all the right cords: no hike in toll rates, no government guarantees or any other financial liabilities, the government saves RM4.3 billion in compensation, a win-win proposal for the rakyat, concessionaires, and all other stakeholders, no employee layoffs, and the highways returned to the government free of encumbrances at the end of the concession period.

The icing on the cake is all these goodies will be delivered by a not-for-profit private entity called Amanat Lebuhraya Rakyat Bhd (ALR).

This seems like a perfect plan. In one strike, it ended the toll concession quagmire, or nightmare, the rakyat has endured since highways were privatised in the 1980s. Why didn’t anyone think of this earlier?

The plan seems to be well received. Even the Pakatan Harapan opposition claimed credit as a copycat of their proposal, albeit with minor modifications. The concessionaires, analysts, and capital markets loved it.