TOLL RATES RAISED EFFECTIVE 1ST JANUARY 2007
Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu announced this afternoon that the toll rates for certain highways would be increased effective 1st January 2007. The increases are Lebuhraya Damansara - Puchong by 60 sen, Lebuhraya Shah Alam by 70 sen, Lebuhraya Cheras - Kajang at Batu 9 and Batu 11, each by 30 sen, Lebuhraya KL - Karak by RM1, Bentong by 50 sen and Lebuhraya Koridor Guthrie by 40 sen. Datuk Seri Samy further informed that this increase in rates is inevitable and the rakyat need to live with it.
It seems that the Barisan Nasional government that rule our country does not care for the welfare of the rakyat. The rakyat have been facing rising cost and with this increament, prices of goods are expected to rise. In the meantime, UMNO only cares for its own members and had recently awarded each division RM3 Million to be shared by the divisions in the name of development projects. Now we have come to understand that this RM600 Million is public funds.
Its time for the people to take stock of the situation. It seems that as long as the Barisan Nasional rules our country, we can expect price hikes, since it is also know as BARANG NAIK(BN).
The only alternative for the rakyat is to stop using these highways. If the rakyat whole-heartedly boycott these highways, I am sure the highways concessionaires will immediately revert their rates, since their huge cost will force them to agree to the pressures of the rakyat.
Only if we stand united in this matter can we achieve victory. Will the rakyat stand united?
It is also time for the rakyat to change this Barisan Nasional government since they are uncaring, irresponsible, corrupt and have been mismanaging our country.
Time for the rakyat to ACT.
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About Me
- Mohd Kamal Abdullah
- Mohd Kamal Abdullah frequently writes in Malaysiakini, MalaysiaToday and in the FORUM column of MALAYSIA CHAT www.malaysia-chat.com. Kamal holds a law degree and was active in Malaysian Politics (a component party of Barisan Nasional) until of late, to concentrate on pursuing a post-graduate law degree in United Kingdom.
4 comments:
Lately, we drove from Virginia all the way to Florida, crossing 4 states in all. Beautiful 6-lane highways (smooth, no potholes), self-explanatory and clear signages, only a few billboards in the 800-mile stretch, very good rest stops etc AND no toll. Mind you, they have to regrade and upgrade their roads after every winter. I remembered in Pennsylvania, I was warned to have 50 cents with me as there was a new highway which I was using. As I approached the toll booth, I noticed that it was unmanned. I threw 2 quarters into a basketlike contraption. A sign says 'Thank You' and I drove on. There were no arm barriers etc. I often wondered what would have happened if I had no coins and had driven thru without throwing in the 50 cents. Even my American friends couldn't answer that. They just replied that nobody thought of not paying! I have been thru Europe too. I don't remember any tolls along the highways. Perhaps we should send a team to those places to learn how they could have beautiful highways without having to pay tolls, or at least paying only for an initial period. If these people whom we looked down on and berate ever so often can do it, so can we!!!
Sorry to say that when Tun Mahathir had first suggested the idea of privatization, what came to my mind was that it was one of the ways these big politicians could make easy money at the expense of the rakyat.
Who actually are behind these big companies if it's not those politicians in power. The companies are run by their proxies.
Back in the 80's it was known that a research had been carried out where it was concluded that if all of the road tax revenues were to be spent on building and maintaining roads and highways alone there was no need for any imposition of toll.
Consider the millions of vehicles in KL alone with a yearly increament of perhaps 10% and imagine the revenue increasing enormously.
Statistics obtained from Malaysia Automotive Association (MAA)for the year 2005 the number of new vehicles registered touched 550,000 units.
With that gigantic amount of road tax collected per year on new vehicles together with the existing vehicles imagine the amount not being able to build and maintain roads and highways in the country?
What better way of making money at the expense of rakyat by this gluttonous and ravenous politicians in power.
How can you say that companies running and maintaining the highways are not making profits when the number of vehicles plying the highways are on the increase year after year.
Let's not building super highways if we do not have that much funds.
Building highways on borrowed external funds will only burdern the rakyat for a long time to come while the "politicians" are making fast bucks for them and their cronies.
Our Thai neighbours enjoy better highways and even without having to pay tolls. If the country is a much poorer nation than ours how come theircitizens can enjoy what we can't?
It is very true that the country has been very seriously mismanaged!
So many unnecessary and outrageously overpriced spendings, while the people struggling to cope with the ever rising cost.
The prices are very DISPROPORTIONATE of incomes. Even cost in Spore is MORE AFFORDABLE than Msia! Take a look at the short list I compiled recently below.
The comparison is on local denominators, without currency conversion. This is used because a RM1000 job in Msia is easily paid more than S$1000 in Spore. Such income disparity is across the board. Yet, the prices in Msia are higher for almost all items in the market (include items not in the list)!
.Coca-Cola (330ml) - RM1.50 vs S$0.70
.McDonald (Value Meal) - RM10.00 vs S$5.50
.Petrol (1 liter) - RM1.90 vs S$1.60
.Chicken (1 kg) - RM6 vs S$3
.MRT/LRT (~45 minutes ride) RM2.50 vs S$2.00 (rough estimate)
.Taxi (~45 minutes ride) RM????? vs S$20-S$25
Our 0% GST living cost is even higher than that of a developed nation with 5% GST (soon 7%)! Something is seriously very wrong.
The road systems seems to have designed in such a way the users would be diverted to the tolled road and exited to jammed roads and re-diverted to another tolled road ..........!!! How many tolls in Klang Valley the users have to pay before reaching the destination?
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