http://www.gmanews.tv/story/99303/(Update)-NLEX-tolls-cut-frozen-for-2-1/2-years
MANILA, Philippines - Announcing yet another government initiative to lower costs for consumers, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday said tolls at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) would be cut and basically frozen for the next two and a half years.
A stronger peso, Mrs. Arroyo said in a speech during an egg festival in Minalin, Pampanga, has enabled operator Manila North Toll Ways Corp. (MNTC) to post a windfall that can be passed on to the public through lower road use charges."MNTC has been generating a financial windfall for its toll road operation. It’s clear that the MNTC can pass or part of this huge windfall to the public via reduced toll rate," she said.
"The MNTC secured dollar-denominated loans [that] rehabilitated NLEX at an average of P54 a dollar. And now it is P43 to a dollar. The high debt servicing cost was heavily factored in the computation of its toll matrix," the President added.Citing findings by transport groups, the President said the debt servicing cost of MNTC was now 31% lower due to the "favorable exchange rate" and the "favorable interest rate regime.
"MNTC is owned in part by the Lopez family, currently engaged in a dispute with a state pension fund over the high power rates charged by Manila Electric Co. The dispute reportedly has part of its roots in an alleged bias against Mrs. Arroyo by another Lopez firm, ABS-CBN.
Palace officials denied that the NLEX toll cut was part of a drive versus the Lopezes.Lorelei C. Fajardo, Deputy Presidential Spokesman and Presidential Assistant for Central Luzon, said the government had been negotiating with the MNTC to lower tolls even before the Meralco row broke out."We would have wanted to implement the rate reduction when the peso-dollar exchange rate was at P40 to a dollar. That could have led to greater reductions but we have to follow certain processes," she said.
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5 comments:
This is a very good news to the people, because as we all know that the Price of the oil is continuesly going up. So it has a lot of advantage for the people passing through NLEX (North Luzon Expessway). Because people now can save more money even though the oil is going high. But the disadvantage is that it will cost more traffic.
Finally, something good happened to our economy.
However, even news this good has a downside.
Because NLEX no longer has a toll fee, more people will use that road, which means more traffic. This means that more gasoline is wasted simply by waiting for the traffic to pass.
Even though the toll has been frozen, more gasoline is wasted. There is no profit in this.
Wow..a cool news for us! At last, even though it's only the tolls, we know that our economy is improving. An incident that will finally benefit us. Especially due to oil price hike, this will help us save and the money will just go to the gasoline of the car. Unfortunately, I agree with others who commented that this can lead to traffics. Well at least somthing good happened despite the traffic.
I'm glad that the prices of toll went down. This is a big help to the people especially those who travel a lot. Even though I'm happy about the lower prices, I'm still worried that the government may be interfering too much with the private investors who invested in the NLEX. The government better stay cautious if they don't want to discourage the investors.
I like this! This is good news for the people who are always traveling using the NLEX. There are also a lot of improvements in the NLEX.. Like the widening of the road and putting asphalt. It just feels so smooth and not so many "lubak" in it. A better expressway but at a cheaper price. Nice! :)
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