PARLIAMENT Coming less than a month after the Oct 15 toll hike announcement, Putrajaya revealed another shocker today by claiming that eight more highway operators are entitled to a toll hike next year.

This was announced by Works Minister Fadillah Yusof at the Dewan Rakyat during the winding-up debate of the 2016 Budget at the committee stage.

He said if the government rejects the concessionaires' request for a toll hike, it will have to fork out RM593.32 million in compensation as stated in the 2016 Budget.

The eight highways are the North-South Expressway (Plus), the Second Link Expressway, the North-South Expressway Central Link (Elite), the Seremban-Port Dickson Highway (SPDH), the Shah Alam Expressway (Kesas), the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP), North Klang Straits Bypass (NKSB) and the Butterworth-Kulim Expressway (BKE).

"(These) are the highways qualified for a hike according to their contracts. I have not decided on whether to allow (the hikes)," said Fadillah, who is also Petrajaya parliamentarian.

The breakdown of the compensation is Plus (RM214 million), Second Link (RM 8.2 million), Elite (RM79.44 million), BKE (RM3.11 million), SPDH (RM1.95 million), LDP (RM185.89 million) , Kesas (RM92.8 million) and NKSB (RM7.85 million).

Fadillah also denied that BN had broken its 2013 general election manifesto promise by announcing toll hikes.

He said BN only agreed to reduce inter-city highway tolls which is only confined to two highways - Plus and the East Coast Highway 1 (LPT 1).

He was responding Hee Loi Sian (PKR-Petaling Jaya Selatan) who criticised the government for allowing the highway toll hikes.

He said BN had promised a gradual reduction of intra-city tolls which should included highways as they connect different parts of the same city.

Most of the highways in the country were intra-city highways serving the Klang Valley, he added.