Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof
KUALA LUMPUR: Negotiations are underway to include a portion of the road tax revenue into a special allocation to repair federal roads nationwide, says Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.
Fadillah, who is also Minister of Infrastructure, said this was one of the proposals put forward in negotiations with the Transport Ministry to resolve the problem caused by overloaded vehicles.
He said to date, proceeds from the road tax had been put into the consolidation fund under the Finance Ministry for development purposes, including for the maintenance of federal roads provided through the government’s operating budget.
“However, the existing provisions for road maintenance received from the consolidation fund is not enough. The Works Ministry, therefore, recommends that certain percentage of road tax be put into the trust account for road maintenance purposes,” he told Bernama.
The proposal was raised at a press conference after Fadillah presented the Completion Contractor Certificates to 39 recipients here yesterday.
At the event, he also witnessed the ‘I Promise Zero Potholes’, which was a Public Works Department (JKR) initiative and six concessionaire companies for federal roads to further strengthen the ministry’s commitment on the delivery of road maintenance services.
Fadillah said it was difficult to ascertain who was responsible for the damage caused by these vehicles, in contrast to damage caused by utilities repair work.
“If it is due to the work of utilities, they have to pay a deposit to JKR – we would either recover from the deposit, or until the contractor repairs the damage done and adheres to the standards, JKR would be happy to return the deposit.
“But apart from utilities, it is a bit difficult for us to identify the source that causes the damage, whether it is a lorry or what – this is a very complicated matter in terms of making claims.”
He said through the ‘Zero Potholes’ programme launched in 2016, he was committed to resolving the problem of potholes within 24 hours of discovering it, or receiving complaints for temporary repairs, or within three days for permanent repairs.
In another development, Fadillah said the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) Technical Committee had held a three-day meeting recently and concluded several matters concerning Sarawak and Petronas’ collaboration.
These included the party responsible for exploration and leading oil and gas search operations on and off the coast of Sarawak, he said. — Bernama