GEORGE TOWN: The abolition of motorcycle toll charges at three locations is the first step in the government’s efforts to scrap toll collection completely as promised by Pakatan Harapan (PH) before the 14th General Election (GE14).
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the PH government could not abolish all toll charges immediately because the country was facing financial problems due to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.
“Abolishing motorcycle tolls at Penang’s First and Second Bridges together with the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link in Johor is the first step to completely abolish tolls,” he said after launching the Customs Department quarters lift upgrading in Bukit Gelugor, here, today.
He said the government would do its best to fulfil its promise to scrap all tolls.
He said the government believed that Malaysia would be able to improve its fiscal position in three years’ t
ime and become a high income nation.
“We never said that abolishing motorcycle toll is the end of it,” he added.
“We will continue with the effort.
“If we can be in a better fiscal position than expected, then there could be more good news, but the people must also work together and not let any parties to divide them and cover up scandals.”
Moving on to another issue, Lim rejected the claim that the government would use the same method employed by the previous government to keep petrol prices under control.
“The older method had no cap. We will limit it to RM2.20 while the remainder will be borne by the government through subsidy. Other than that we can speak about it in six months’ time.”
The retail prices for RON97, RON95 and diesel will be maintained at their present rate for the next few days.
RON97 is priced at RM2.50 per litre, RON95 at RM2.20 and diesel at RM2.18.
