This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 27, 2023 - April 2, 2023

The move to end pointless monopolies is finally taking shape, with the new administration under the recently elected unity government beginning to crack the whip.

Last Friday, Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook announced that the current monopoly for commercial vehicle inspections held by Puspakom Sdn Bhd, which is a wholly-owned unit of DRB-Hicom Bhd, will come to an end next year. DRB-Hicom is a vehicle of businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary. If memory serves, talk of ending Puspakom’s monopoly have been ongoing since October 2017.

While Puspakom is slated to get a 15-year extension after its concession expires at end-August 2024, other qualified parties will be able to apply for a licence to undertake commercial vehicle inspections in the first quarter of 2024.

Earlier last week, it was announced that Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd’s monopoly as the sole payment agent for tolled road highways would come to an end as well, given the public’s preference for open payment systems, and a shift towards a multi-lane free flow system.

As a first step, five tolled road highways — the New Pantai Expressway, Besraya Highway, the Ampang-Kuala Lumpur Elevated Highway, the Penang Bridge and Guthrie Corridor Expressway — will commence open payment systems by September.

Why Puspakom and Touch ‘n Go were given their respective monopolies in the first place is perhaps a tale for another day, but what is important now is for all other unsupportable monopolies to be dismantled to ensure levels of service go up, and for the paying public to get the best bang for their buck.

Kudos to the new government. The dismantling of monopolies is certainly a step in the right direction.

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