For example, did you know that in Singapore, once you get your driving license, there is no yearly renewal fee? It's free for life!! Just like some of the credit cards being promoted out there.
We need to fix these issues:-
1. LRT, KTM Komuter, KL Monorail and RapidKL services. They are all there but no one is able to make it worth together like an orchestra. I heard the Mat Salleh who wanted to fix it was given the boot for his ideas. What a joke!!
Today, less than 30 trains service over 100,000 passengers daily compared with 300,000 on 62 trains when KTM Komuter was in full swing. The double tracking project from Rawang to Ipoh is already completed but the service can't start because the company that supplies the trains has gone bust!!
2. Toll roads
Most of the toll operators are making a huge profit after repaying their development costs and either the companies should be taken over or consolidated with the money-losing train systems that the government was forced to take over. How can the government allow toll operators to charge so much due to short-sighted agreements and yet use taxpayers money to bail out transit rail systems operators? It makes no sense at all. Plus Expressways Bhd declared a Profit before Tax of RM1.308 billion for FY 2007. On the other hand, Star LRT and Putra LRT were taken over by Syarikat Prasana Negara Bhd (SPNB) at a whopping costs of RM3.3 billion and RM4.5 billion respectively. In other words, Malaysian taxpayers have to bear the costs of privatisation failures and pay more toll to toll operators who rip us off and demand compensation from the Government so as not to increase tolls further. We are really idiots!!
3. Exorbitant import and excise duties and road taxes on cars
Why do we have to pay huge amount of import duties and taxes on our cars just in order that Proton is able to keep making cars. Aren't we putting our heads in the sand? An average popular car like Toyota Vios cost US$10,000 (RM33,000) in America. In Malaysia, it costs more than RM80,000. How can this be? Only because, we are supposed to drive around in Proton cars or else!
If Proton can't compete after 22 years of subsidy from the rakyat, it should sold off or shut down. The duties and taxes should be abolished or streamlined in order not to burden the rakyat.
4. Abolish AP system
The AP system should be abolished and no more APs should be given out. Over the many years, AP has been given, individuals has pocketed billions of ringgit for doing nothing. Except for a handful of companies who re-invested their profits to build a thriving business of selling and servicing cars, the AP system seems only a way to print money without increasing our competitiveness in the business of selling and servicing cars. Even then, some of these companies continue to abuse the system by buying new cars overseas, declaring them as used cars to obtain lower import duties and then selling the cars locally and making obscene profits.
5. Export our old cars
Did you know that Singapore exports more cars than Proton? Singapore exports over 100,000 cars a year. Due to its mandatory car scrapping law where cars more than 10 years old are automatically assigned to the scrapyard and its incentives to dispose of cars used for more than 5 years, Singapore car owners are able to purchase a new car and used cars are thus exported out of the country. It helps that the COE system keeps the car price competitive unlike in Malaysia where we can't export our cars since most of the value is in duties and exorbitamt taxes.
6. Encourage diesel cars by selling higher quality diesel and giving incentives for using diesel engines
It's a fact that over 60% of cars in Europe run on diesel today and modern diesel engines are far more efficient and less polluting than petrol engines. Yet, due to the fact that Proton does not produce cars with diesel engines, we are discouraged from owning one. And yet the government is giving incentives to build biodiesel plants. No wonder, all the projects failed. The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. A turbo charged modern Euro 4 gives a higher power output and yet consumes half that of a petrol engine but most of these engines start to give problems after a while because of the high sulphur content of our local diesel
It time to give the rakyat a break or we will call in the ghostbusters - PR.
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