(Oct 13): Come Thursday, Malaysian motorists will feel like they have been run over by a speeding monster truck following news of toll hikes on several major highways beginning October 15, DAP said.

The party's national publicity chief Tony Pua said the toll hikes had been approved despite nearly all of the affected highways recording lucrative profits over the past few years.

He added that the increase in toll rates merely allowed crony toll concessionaires to reap astronomical profits at the expense of the man on the street, with the consent of the government.

The Petaling Jaya MP also said Datuk Seri Najib Razak's promise to Malaysians in Barisan Nasional’s (BN) 2013 election manifesto that there would be a "gradual reduction of intra-city tolls" in the five years after the election was nothing but an empty promise to win votes.

"Malaysians are now suffering from Barisan Nasional’s failed privatisation policies of yesteryears where crony companies were directly awarded highway concessions without any open tenders.

"The BN administration masked these projects via lower toll rates during the initial years to beguile ordinary Malaysians into accepting the toll concession scheme.

"However, the reality has become apparent today that BN colluded with these companies to backload all their astronomical profits via future steep toll hikes which we are burdened with today," Pua said.

He added that Litrak Bhd, the operating company for both the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) and Sprint Highway made RM187 million in profit before tax for its financial year ending March 2015 on the back of RM380.7 million in revenue.

Pua said despite the highway's profits, the toll rate for the LDP would be increased from RM1.60 to RM2.10 in two days, adding that  based on the highway concession contract, the LDP was scheduled to increase its toll further to RM3.10 from January 2016.

The federal lawmaker added that the massive toll hikes across the board proved BN’s incapability of managing the country’s finances.

"The corruption, wastage, inefficiency and misappropriation of government funds have taken a toll on government expenditure.

"Despite massive increases in revenues over the past two decades resulting from the oil price boom, Malaysians not only have to pay heavily to use our own highways, the federal government is now so impoverished it needs to raise new taxes like the goods and services tax (GST)," he said. – The Malaysian Insider