SAMY Hides behind OSA on toll agreements!

Well, the expected finally happened. Samy has said he can’t make public the toll concession agreement, see today’s Star. By the way, thank you to Theresa Kok for pushing so hard in Parliament on this issue.

Samy: Highway pact won’t be made public

THE Government has decided that it is not appropriate for all highway concessionaire agreements to be made public.

In January this year, Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the agreement between the Government and highway concessionaires would not be revealed as the documents were confidential.

A month later, however, he announced that the Prime Minister had agreed in principle to make the documents public.

“We have studied the matter in detail and have decided that it is not appropriate to reveal all signed concessionaire agreements to the public,” said Samy Vellu in a written reply to Lim Kit Siang (DAP – Ipoh Timur) yesterday.

Samy Vellu said all concessionaire agreements were part of the Government’s secret documents and came under the Official Secrets Act.

“These documents contain a confidentiality clause whereby an agreement has to be first obtained from a concessionaire company before the agreement can be made public,” he said.

Let’s see what was said in earlier press releases on the matter:

Taken from my earlier posts, here

On obtaining permission from the concessionaire:

Samy Vellu is back in the paper on Litrak making the concessionaire agreements public. Read what was said in the Star here.

See what Samy says:

“I have talked to Litrak; they have agreed to make it public; now we have to get approval from the Cabinet,” he said after a briefing from Sabah Infrastructure Minister Datuk Raymond Tan.

On the Governments stand in making the agreements public:

Now,lets go back to an earlier statement made by Samy, on making public the toll agreements here.
Allow me to quote from the article:

“I had mentioned it in the Cabinet on Feb 7 and the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) asked me to submit the working paper.

“Now I have already got the approval (to make the agreements public),” he told reporters at the MCA Chinese New Year Open House at Wisma MCA here on Sunday.

Samy even went on further to say:

Samy Vellu said he had consulted the attorney general on the matter and was now writing to the highway concession companies.

This was because there was a clause stating that the consent of the concessionaires was required before publicising the documents.

“Once this is done and the Cabinet approves it, everybody can come and see it. I have the agreements in my office,” Samy Vellu added.

Asked when he expected the agreements could be made public, Samy Vellu said :”Wait for the Cabinet to approve it.”

SAMY, no need to show all toll agreements, just show the : Litrak / LDP agreement as GAMUDA has said they are quite happy to share it. Why pick on Litrak, well see what they announced soon after the toll increases:

From The Star, Starbiz, Monday 30th April 2007, page B3, Between the Lines, by CS Tan:

Motorists will get used to higher toll rates. Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd (Litrak), for instance, found its traffic volume was weak in the first two months this year, after a scheduled 60% toll hike from RM1.00 to RM1.60 in the beginning of the year. It is understood traffic volume has stabilised, with a marginal growth in March and April.

With that toll increase, Litrak would have free cashflow of about RM140mil a year, and sources said, a capital repayment of about 50 sen a share could soon be offered to shareholders.

To see other related posts I have on Samy, go to categories and click on Tolls & Samy Vellu.

Litarak, Capital Repayment, 50sen / share…

From The Star, Starbiz, Monday 30th April 2007, page B3, Between the Lines, by CS Tan:

Motorists will get used to higher toll rates. Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd (Litrak), for instance, found its traffic volume was weak in the first two months this year, after a scheduled 60% toll hike from RM1.00 to RM1.60 in the beginning of the year. It is understood traffic volume has stabilised, with a marginal growth in March and April.

With that toll increase, Litrak would have free cashflow of about RM140mil a year, and sources said, a capital repayment of about 50 sen a share could soon be offered to shareholders.

So it looks like SAMY is indeed working for the shareholders.. especially since the rakyaat have been burdened with the increase in toll and the shareholders about to reap a capital repayment….

More thoughts on Toll Cost

I hope Teresa Kok will continue to pursue the toll matter…..

What I would like to know is, if the figures quoted is only what has been collected from the public or does it also include the subsidy from the government, which is reported to be Rm479.7 mil over the last 6 years.

Mathematically RM479.7 mil / 6 years = 79.95 million per year

Samy Vellu did speak of the LDP increase and says although toll is going up by 60sen, the government still has to subsidies 50 sen. which works out to be:

400,000 toll-able trips per day x 50 sen x 30 days per month x 12 months per year = RM72 million in subsidy per year. Does that mean the bulk of the subsidy is going to LDP?

Remember, this is what The Star quoted Samy Vellu saying

Works Minister Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu said, for example, the Government was paying 50 sen for every passenger car passing through the Damansara-Puchong Expressway (LDP) toll plaza.

“Although the toll will be increased by 60 sen from Jan 1 next year, the Government will still be subsidising 50 sen,” he told a press conference at his office here yesterday.

He also announced the toll increase for the Cheras-Kajang (or Grand Saga) Highway, Kuala Lumpur-Karak Highway, Guthrie Corridor Expressway and Kesas (or Shah Alam) Expressway during the press conference.

Samy Vellu said the Government had paid RM479.7mil in toll subsidy in the past six years.

Our tolled highways cost us RM16.4 million per km!

Thank you Teresa Kok for getting an answer here on how much the toll operators have collected.

In a written reply on Tuesday to a question by Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh), Samy Vellu said the companies had collected RM23.65bil without stating the amount of bank loans obtained by the firms nor the interest rates.

I took some info from Lembaga Lebuh Raya Malaysia as follows:
Plus – 848 KM
KL – Karak – 60 km
Penang Bridge – 13.5 km
Shah Alam Express Way 34.5km
Kulim – Butterworth – 17.5 km
Elite – 48KM
Seremban – PD – 23km
Linkedua – 46km
SgBesi Hwy – 16km
Cheras – Kajang – 11.7km
LDP 1 – 23km
LDP 2 – 17km
Ampang Elevated – 7.4km
Sprint – 26km
NPE – 19.6 km
Silk – 37km
Lebuhraya Pantai Timur – 169 km
CGE Guthrie – 25km

The total length of our tolled highways are 1442.2 km. On the basis of Rm23.65 billion, our cost per km is : RM23,650,000,000 / 1442.2 km = RM16,398,557.76 per km.

Toll collection is reported at RM41 million per month or RM 1/2 billion a year.

By the way the reported “kos pembinaan” is 18.93 bilion or RM 13.125 million per km. Compare this to India’s cost below:

To give a relative feel for this, let me quote highway construction cost:

Foreign Firms Line up for National Highway Contracts

By Shalini Singh
Times News Network
May 17, 2003

NEW DELHI: About 16 large overseas builders are jostling for a piece of the Rs 12,000 crore-worth of contracts to build and improve 3,003 km of national highways. About 23 short-listed BoT projects to four-lane national highways have attracted 115-odd bids, many from Malaysia and Singapore.

The overseas bidders include IJM Bhd, Gamuda Bhd, Meinhardt, Tiong Seng Bhd, GMR, Dutcell, Hohup Bhd, United Engineers Bhd, Dhaya Maju Bhd, Maitas Bhd, RBM Bhd, SNC Bhd, Ose Bhd, HCM Bhd, RBH Bhd and Delomite.

The local list includes IL&FS (13 bids), Srei (7), Gammon (5), Gyatri Construction (7), HCC (5), L&T (5), Ircon (3), Unitech (2), IDFC (2), DS Construction (2), Punj Lloyd (2), Nagarjuna Construction (2), and Essar, Adani and Som Dutt with one bid each.

The renewed interest may be attributed not just to the value of the contracts Rs 9,009-12,012 crore but also to a more sensible bidding process that allows companies to pitch for entire projects, from feasibility studies to construction, operation and maintenance. Earlier, tenders for each aspect of a project were awarded separately, resulting in poor bidder turnouts.

The last date for submission of applications for empanelment was April 18, with a 15-day extension. The shortlisted candidates are likely to be announced tomorrow.

These 3,003-odd km of projects form part of the 10,000 km national highways that the ministry of road transport & highways (MORT&H) is taking up to four-lane over the next 4-5 years.

They are not included in the 13,000 km of national highways that classify as NHDP projects. The base construction cost for most of the sections for the four-laning of the 3,000 km which is to be awarded in this fiscal is Rs 3-4 crore per km, while the contract length is likely to be 50-100 km.

The work includes rehabilitating and upgrading the existing 2-lane section to a 4-lane divided carriageway, rehabilitating existing pavements, construction of major and minor bridges, culverts, road intersections, interchanges and drains.

Ind Rupee = 3 crore = RM 2,398,505.13, of course this doesn’t include maintenance and service, but surely it cant be RM16.4 mil per km….

For full details, please visit Teresa Kok’s site.

Does SAMY speak with a twisted tounge?

Samy Vellu is back in the paper on Litrak making the concessionaire agreements public. Read what was said in the Star here.

See what Samy says:

“I have talked to Litrak; they have agreed to make it public; now we have to get approval from the Cabinet,” he said after a briefing from Sabah Infrastructure Minister Datuk Raymond Tan.

Now,lets go back to an earlier statement made by Samy, on making public the toll agreements here.
Allow me to quote from the article:

“I had mentioned it in the Cabinet on Feb 7 and the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) asked me to submit the working paper.

“Now I have already got the approval (to make the agreements public),” he told reporters at the MCA Chinese New Year Open House at Wisma MCA here on Sunday.

Isn’t this such a blatant contradiction, to the point one could say he was lying?

Then again, he did contradict himself in the earlier statement. Let me quote what he said after that:

Samy Vellu said he had consulted the attorney general on the matter and was now writing to the highway concession companies.

This was because there was a clause stating that the consent of the concessionaires was required before publicising the documents.

“Once this is done and the Cabinet approves it, everybody can come and see it. I have the agreements in my office,” Samy Vellu added.

Asked when he expected the agreements could be made public, Samy Vellu said :”Wait for the Cabinet to approve it.”

So I guess its all SAM speak….

The toll saga continues….

The whole toll saga is taking on a new twist and I wonder what’s cooking?

I did an earlier post which outlined to sequenc of event leading to Ronnie Liu being picked up for questionning.

Now Pak Lah says its okay to make the agreements public.

This comes on the back of Nazri Aziz saying the Governemnt has no problem declassifying the toll documents but the concessionaires may sue the Government… yeah right.

It is precisley this flip flopping and clouded thinking that is causing people to loose faith in the “Political Master’s” who are supposed to do all the thinking for us.