PETALING JAYA: The Government is expected to make a decision on road toll rates soon, possibly before the end of this week, as it owes compensation to the concessionaires for at least two months and more will be owed without a decision.

Three groups own highways with toll rates that are overdue for increases, according to their concession agreements.

These concession owners are PLUS Expressways Bhd, IJM Corp Bhd and Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd (Litrak). While they own a number of tolled highways, several were due, or already overdue, for toll increases on Jan 1.

These involve the North-South Expressway, New Klang Valley Expressway and Federal Highway Route 2 under PLUS, New Pantai Expressway (NPE) and Sungai Besi Highway under IJM group, and Damansara Link and Kerinchi Link that are stretches of the Sprint highway of Litrak.

With each month of further delay, the sum of government compensation to these concessionaires would increase. Its compensation ends when the toll rates are raised. An early decision is therefore in the Government?s interest.

The Government recently made some modifications to tolled roads. It abolished the Kuala Lumpur-bound toll plaza of the NPE at PJS2 on Feb 14. The IJM group is expected to be compensated for the loss of revenue from that toll plaza.

It was reported Tuesday that the Sungai Besi Highway's Salak Jaya toll plaza on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur would also be closed. Works Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Zin Mohamad said the concessionaire, Besraya Sdn Bhd, also owned by IJM, would not be compensated.

Besraya is expected to open a new toll plaza at the end of an extension of the Sungai Besi Highway that it was appointed to construct.

Analysts said differing decisions could be made for each of the highways. Some may be allowed to make the full toll increases, for instance, while others may be allowed only partial increases, with compensation-in-kind such as an extension of their concession periods.

The Government has a financial interest in resolving the issue which unfortunately is a thorny political problem.

Many road users feel the amount of toll is high as they use the highways daily, sometimes several times a day, while others feel the Government should have built toll-free roads instead.

Meanwhile, many financial stakeholders have become tied to the toll concessions.

There are new owners as shares in some of the public-listed concessionaires have changed hands, institutions have lent hundreds of millions of ringgit to the projects and concession owners have risked their capital to build the highways.