This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 10, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is looking at alternatives to abolishing highway toll collection, but a decision has now been postponed until the country is in better financial health, said Works Minister Baru Bian.

He was clarifying news reports that the government will be making a decision to abolish the tolls within two to three months.

“There is no abolishment for now, but we are looking at alternatives. We have been talking to concessionaires and there are suggestions like rebates, fixing the toll at the current rates for a few years or even reducing them,” he said during a session at the “Malaysia: A New Dawn” investors’ conference yesterday.

He said any decision on the alternative measures would have implications on the government as the agreements have already been signed and therefore the terms cannot simply be changed unless it is mutually agreed by the signatories.

“So, we will be making the decision on that. In fact, my ministry and the ministry of finance are looking into this and we are discussing on the best options that we should propose to the cabinet,” he said.

Economists have warned the government against rushing to abolish highway tolls, saying it would need a huge sum to buy out all the assets if the tolls were to be abolished.

On the construction progress of the Pan Borneo Highway, Bian said only 12 work packages have been tendered out for the Sabah portion so far as there have been some issues due to difficulty in acquiring land.

“For the Sabah side, there have been some issues. Only 12 packages have been tendered out before the elections and the rest were withheld because they were not sure what is going to happen after the elections.

“Of course, we need to pursue this project in Sabah but we are having issues with the acquisition of land, which is the biggest hurdle that we have,” he added.