Penang BN to meet Najib on Penang Bridge toll hikePenang BN to meet Najib on Penang Bridge toll hike

KUALA LUMPUR: The Penang Barisan Nasional leadership will meet the prime minister to discuss the Penang Bridge toll hike issue on its own instead of jointly with Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Penang BN chairman Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon told reporters at parliament lobby yesterday that he had declined Lim’s invitation to “protest” the imminent toll hike.

“But we’ve already written to Datuk Seri Najib Razak, seeking a meeting to discuss the toll hike a few weeks back,” he said.

According to the former Penang chief minister, the toll hike had been put off three times already.

“In the original concession contract, it was already agreed that the toll rates would be revised by 2% each year once every five years. But when I was chief minister, we managed to convince the federal government and the concessionaire to suspend the hikes in 1998, 2003 and 2008,” said Koh, who is now a federal minister.

“Although Lim has requested for me to join him in a protest against the possible toll hike, I’ve declined his invitation.

“But we (Penang BN) will meet the prime minister separately to discuss this issue.”

Koh, however, declined to state his stand on the matter.

Lim had invited the Gerakan president to protest the possible toll hike on Saturday, when the scheduled increase comes up again in 2013.


This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, July 1, 2010.