New year new beginning and good news just keep coming.
What’s the good news? Our Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has announced that toll fares for all vehicle classes across 21 highways to not increase in 2019.
This freeze of toll fare hikes are an initiative from the government to help lessen the burden of Malaysians’ rising cost of living. This freeze would incur the government an estimated RM972.75mil in compensation to the concessionaires.
If the concessionaires had been allowed to increase the toll rates next year, motorists would have to fork out additional payment of between 20 sen and RM1. Here are some example of pay that you need to make for using the highway. Class 1 vehicles using the Shah Alam Expressway (Kesas) will have to pay 50 sen more at RM2.50, Damansara Puchong Highway (LDP) from RM2.10 to RM3.10 and the Ampang-Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway (Akleh) from RM2.50 to RM3.50.
Duta-Ulu Klang Expressway (DUKE) users will have to fork out 80 sen more from RM2.50 currently while motorists exiting at the Putrajaya toll on the Kuala Lumpur-Putrajaya Highway (MEX) would have to pay RM1.40 more – from RM3.50 to RM4.90.
Not just that, for buses, The Malaysian Finance Minister also revealed that toll prices for eight additional highways will be maintained. In addition to that, tolls for motorcycles at the First and Second Penang Bridges, and the Second Link in Johor will be terminated from 1 January next year.
If you’re wondering which are the highway that freezes the hike, the lists of the 21 highways are as below
- North-South Expressway,
- Malaysia-Singapore Second Link,
- Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS),
- North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE),
- East Coast Expressway Phase 1,
- Besraya Expressway,
- New Pantai Expressway (NPE),
- Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP),
- Ampang-Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway (AKLEH),
- Butterworth-Kulim Expressway (BKE),
- Duta-Ulu Klang Expressway (DUKE),
- Maju Expressway (MEX),
- Kajang-Seremban Highway (LEKAS),
- Senai-Desaru Expressway (SDE),
- Sprint Expressway,
- South Klang Valley Expressway (SKVE),
- Seremban-Port Dickson Highway (SPDH),
- Lebuhraya New North Klang Straits Bypass (NNKSB),
- Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE),
- Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah Bridge, and
- SMART tunnel.
The other eight highways that will see a freeze in toll prices for buses are:
- Cheras-Kajang Expressway (CKE),
- Kuala Lumpur-Karak Expressway (KLK),
- Kemuning-Shah Alam Highway (LKSA),
- Butterworth Outer Ring Road (BORR),
- Kajang Dispersal Link Expressway (SILK),
- Kuala Lumpur-Kuala Selangor Expressway (LATAR),
- New Pantai Expressway (NPE), and
- Sprint Expressway.
Good way to start the year. At least there is no toll hike and hopefully we could be expecting more good news from the government in 2019