By Syauqi Jamil
KUALA LUMPUR: Previous Barisan Nasional government’s costing for the Singapore-Malaysia High Speed Rail (HSR) of between RM55 to RM74 billion does not include ‘hidden charges’.
Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali said that the Pakatan Harapan government’s estimated costing of RM110 billion includes expenses that wasn’t revealed previously.
“The cost that was mention, RM55 billion are the project cost. But there are plenty of hidden cost that wasn’t revealed by the previous government.
“So Pakatan Harapan government is responsible to disclose the entire costing of the project. We need to see if the government can afford this project under the current economic situation,” he said today in Parliament.
Azmin was replying to MCA’s Wee Ka Siong who asked why the costing is estimated at RM110 billion when it was between RM55 to RM74 billion previously.
The matter was initially brought up by Opposition Leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi during the first Parliamentary sitting after the General Elections.
In his answers earlier, Azmin pointed out that the overall costing of HSR which is estimated to be about RM110 billion is too high for a 350km stretch as the government are trying to reduce the national debt that almost reached RM1 trillion.
He added that the government have decided that Economic Affairs, Finance and Transport Ministries will represent Malaysia to discuss with the Singaporean government to re-evaluate the project’s terms of agreement and its viability.
“I will lead the visit to Singapore in the near future to have a discussion in reaching an agreement with the Singapore government to solve the matter as fairly and justly as well as preserving the long established diplomatic ties,” he said, adding that he is looking into visiting Singapore before the end of July.
