Declassify IPP agreements, DAP tells Putrajaya
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — The government must declassify the independent power producer (IPP) agreements to justify its failure to restructure the contracts and to allow public scrutiny, the DAP has said.
“The government must declassify the independent power producer (IPP) agreements to justify their refusal and failure to restructure these wildly unfair contracts which allows them to make astronomical returns at the expense of the people,” DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua (picture) said in a statement today.
The opposition has stated that the Najib administration would only spur inflation by removing the diesel super subsidy before cutting “big opium” gas subsidies worth RM19 billion for IPPs and commercial power sectors.
But MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek countered that argument by saying that Putrajaya is unable to do so because it is tied up in agreements with various IPPs, and to restructure the agreements would put the government in a bad light.
Pua stressed that there was a need to make public the IPP purchasing power agreements (PPA), and used the highway toll concession agreements as an example. After the agreements were declassified in 2009, “close scrutiny” showed well-defined terms which allowed the government to buy back the concessions.
The declassification of the highway toll concessions, according to the DAP leader also proved that former Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu was “lying” when he charged that the government would have to fork out billions of ringgit in compensation should the concession contracts be terminated.
“It is only with the declassification of the PPAs from the Official Secrets Act (OSA) that Dr Chua can prove that he is not another Samy Vellu who tried to protect the interest of the crony concessionaires while hiding behind the OSA,” said the Petaling Jaya Utara MP, who added that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had no confidence with the government’s political will in renegotiating the IPP contracts.
