S'pore urges Malaysia to halve proposed toll rates

He said the Singapore government had a duty to recover a fair share of the tolls collected from the bridge since $620 million worth of taxpayers' money had been spent on the project.

During his half-hour press conference in KL yesterday, Datuk Vellu declined to answer reporters' questions on Dr Chen's call for the Malaysian government to halve its proposed toll rates.

But the Straits Times was told that Datuk Vellu had telephoned Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan earlier in the day to discuss the proposed tolls and inform him of the plan to review them.

The Malaysian minister yesterday also gave a detailed breakdown of the costs incurred by the Malaysian government and a private company, Linkedua (Malaysia) Berhad, in building the new link. He noted that some 1.7 km of the new bridge had been built by the Malaysian side, while Singapore had built the remaining 0.3 km.

Linkedua, which would be collecting the toll to recover its investment, forked out M$786 million for the 44-km expressway leading to the new link and M$363 million to build the actual bridge. The Malaysian government had spent M$459 million on the customs, immigration and quarantine complex and quarters, which brought the total bill for the Malaysian side to M$1.6 billion.

Singapore spent about $620 million on the second link. The bridge itself had cost $51 million, land reclamation for the project cost another $84 million and the customs, immigration and quarantine complex at Tuas had cost $485 million.

MEANWHILE in a surprise announcement yesterday Malaysia's Works Minister Samy Vellu said his country will delay imposing all toll charges on the second link until after a comprehensive review of the rates is completed in the middle of next month.

Making the announcement at his Kuala Lumpur office, Datuk Vellu said the exact tolls to be charged at the Malaysian end of the new bridge, which links Tanjung Kupang in Johor to Tuas in Singapore, were "still being evaluated by the government".

The review, he conceded, was in response to negative feedback from freight forwarders, lorry operators and businessmen, who had said the high rates would hit businesses in Malaysia and Singapore.

The new charges will be announced in mid-January. In the meantime, motorists using the new crossing, which opens on Jan 2, will be able to travel for free.

Datuk Vellu later told the Straits Times that the period of toll-free travel was expected to last for about a month. So far, no date had been set for imposing the new toll charges.

The surprise move by the Malaysian minister came just a day after he had confirmed, in an interview in KL, that the proposed toll charges would range from about M$8 (S$3.68) for cars and taxis, and M$20 for buses and vans, to as much as M$50 for big lorries.

He had also defended the steep toll rates proposed by Malaysia, saying that they were justified by the new facilities on the bridge which would enable a much faster flow of goods and vehicles compared to the Causeway which, he said, was always jammed. Welcoming the decision to review the toll rates, several Singapore and Malaysian business groups said it was a relief as the proposed charges for lorries had been too high.

Members of the Singapore and Johor Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who visited the second link yesterday, suggested at a joint meeting held here that the new toll rates for the second link should be comparable to those charged at the Causeway.

The vice-chairman of the SCCCI's commerce committee, Mr Kwek Theng Swee, said: "In deciding what the actual rates should be, both sides must take into account the fact that the bridge is meant to speed up the free flow of goods and people. It should not be

Published in the Straits Times. December 24, 1997