THE Council of Elders will announce a restructuring of toll concessions as early as next week, said committee member Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

Senior officers from the sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional and the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), as well as representatives from toll concessionaires briefed the council in Kuala Lumpur today.

Shareholders of Plus Highway and managing officers of UEM and Plus Highway were also present at a meeting today, chaired by former finance minister Daim Zainuddin.

“The decision will be made very quickly because they (stakeholders) are supposed to come back to us next week. Work is very, very intense now,” Zeti told reporters today.

“All of us are very committed to come up with a solution that is in the best interest of all Malaysians who are looking forward to things that are so much better. We hope we can make that happen,” said the former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor.

When met by reporters, Khazanah Nasional managing director Azman Mokhtar said he had a hour-long “good discussion” with council members, which included former president and CEO of Petronas Hassan Marican and economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram.

“Today was about tabling the facts and beginning to look at how to address the issue of tolls,” he said, adding however, that any official announcement would have to come from the council in the coming days.

Azman said there would be ways to offset fiscal shortfall when asked if he was concerned whether the fund might experience a revenue gap due to fiscal reform.

“Things are moving really fast, but it’s still the early days. We have a 100-day plan and we are moving with that,” he said, adding that Daim would be making the announcement.

EPF CEO Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said the abolishment of tolls may not be done within 100 days.

“I don’t necessarily think so. I think what we’re looking at really is the right holistic solution for tolled highways.

“We have to be mindful that a lot of money was invested through capital markets and there’s a need for some balance in this situation,” he said.

Asked if EPF’s investments would be affected, Shahril replied: “It’s was still too early to tell.” – May 17, 2018.