KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): Shareholders of toll concessionaires have “plenty of cash” to cushion the impact from a reduction or elimination of highway tolls, said Tun Daim Zainuddin today. 

However, Daim, who chairs the Council of Eminent Persons, emphasised that the actual plan will need to be discussed further with toll concession holders.

“We will discuss next week on the tolls,” he said. 

“Yes, the bonds (issued by concessionaires) roughly is at around RM55 billion… but most of the [shareholders] like Tabung Haji, Employees Provident Fund (EPF)…. they’ve got plenty of cash.” 

He was answering a question on how the government’s decision to restructure or abolish tolls will impact the ability of concession holders at large in discharging their debt obligations. 

Currently, the nation has 22 highway concessionaires, with a total of RM55.3 billion of outstanding bonds issued by them.

The Pakatan Harapan government has previously promised to abolish tolls to reduce the financial burden of the rakyat.

RAM Ratings has said it expects the bonds and sukuk issued by toll concessionaires to be affected by the proposal, and pointed to how the terms of a settlement differ for each concession agreement.