GEORGE TOWN, April 15 — Penang voters can decide if they want to abolish all toll collections for the Penang Bridge or just that for motorcycles for both bridges this May 9, Lim Guan Eng said.

The caretaker Penang chief minister said Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto promises to abolish highway tolls in phases.

In Penang, he said the Sungai Nyior toll and the first Penang Bridge toll would be the first to be abolished.

"Naturally, the first highway tolls to be abolished are those highways where toll collections have exceeded combined capital investment (construction expenditure, maintenance and operating costs),” he said in a statement issued today.

He said the North-South Highway should be one of the first to have its tolls abolished as collections have far exceeded combined capital investment, yet toll collection is slated to last until 2038.

He accused Penang Barisan Nasional chairman Teng Chang Yeow of lying about the PH manifesto and its promise to abolish highway tolls in phases.

"Teng should stop lying about our Pakatan manifesto on abolishing tolls but explain why has BN not abolished toll collection on the First Penang Bridge?”

"This is a classic case of the ‘guilty party accusing others of the wrongdoing’ or ‘the thief shouting thief’,” he said.

Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, said toll collections for the first Penang Bridge have exceeded more than RM1.7 billion.

He said this amount far exceeded the combined capital investment of RM1.5 billion but the concessionaire can collect toll payments until 2038.

"In other words, the toll operator is blindly making clean profits on the first Penang Bridge until 2038, at the expense of consumers, even though they have got back every single cent of their investment,” he claimed.

He said it is different for the second Penang Bridge as toll collections are still insufficient to cover the combined capital expenditure.

Therefore, toll collections for the second Penang Bridge will not be abolished when PH takes over, he said.

The toll on the second bridge will only be abolished after the first batch of highways have had their tolls abolished, Lim added.

He slammed Teng for supporting what he termed as the unjust collection of tolls on the first Penang Bridge.

"Teng is more concerned about protecting BN’s private political interest than public interest by refusing to support the abolition of toll collections on the first Penang Bridge,” he claimed.

He stressed that PH will not make empty populist promises that will bankrupt the country because "unlike BN, Pakatan refuses to buy the general election.”