TOLL..Lower Rates Please ;)

Any Malaysian would know that Malaysia has many toll booths(thanks to my favourite Dato..hehe..)..Some of the toll rates here are ridiculous..to know the rates...kindly visit http://www.plus.com.my/tollcalculator.asp . Most of the roads and highways with tolls today were built many many years ago...some even decades ago..Yet , the rates either go down by a wee bit , or they get higher .

Technically , a toll is a system where the money collected is used to pay for the compensation payment to companies for building highways or to pay companies that maintains highways (in Malaysia's case , the company is PLUS ) . As the years pass , the rates of should decrease and the toll booths be removed due to the settled payments to companies for building the tolls . As for maintainence , a certain sum of the money collected should be put aside and allocated for the maintainance work . However , that is not the case here.

Here , tolls are everywhere demanding for $$$ . For example , the toll on the Seremban Highway before entering Cheras has been there for over 10 years , maybe 20 . Yet it stands till today demanding higher rates..After all these years , haven't enough money been collected for the construction and maintaince payments of the highway ? Tolls make billions of ringgit per year you know . On top of that we have road tax which is not cheap depending on the vehicle you drive.

Now lets take an example of a person who uses the toll daily..

Imagine a person who is using Kesas Highway from Klang To K.L.(To & From)(That means - using a full package on this Highway).Past Toll Rate = RM1.50 per toll x 6 tolls = RM9.00 per day .Present Toll Rate = RM2.20 per toll x 6 tolls = RM13.20 per dayDifferent = RM0.70 per tollFor 1 day = RM0.70 x 6 tolls (To & From)= RM4.20 a day . Normal Working Days for Normal Person = 240days a year . For One Year = 240days x RM4.20= RM1,008.00 (Different - Old & Present)As such, present Toll Rate = RM13.20/day x 240 days= RM3,168 per yearBut Some Guyz Work for 365 days a year . For One Year = 365days x RM4.20= RM1,533.00 (Different - Old & Present)Full Toll Rate Calculation = RM13.20/day x 365 days= RM4,818 per year . For others toll ; you can calculate on your own... using the same method . If Average Malaysian Salary is RM2000.00 a month , (For easy calculation purpose) , that's means he/she will be spending his/her 2 months salary a year just to pay on the toll.

Clearly this is a big burden for the average Malaysian . Lets not forget of the price hike in fuel and food . Survival is no longer as easy as it use to be . Therefore , to lower the financial burden of the people , the unnecessary high toll rates should either be lowered or removed completely . Certain information cited from http://malaysia-information.blogspot.com/2007/02/road-tax-reduce-toll-rise-in-malaysia.html