PETALING JAYA: Two consumer groups have opposed the decision
made by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) for imposing the ‘platform
fee’ charges on Light Rail Transit (LRT) and KL Monorail commuters and has
described the move as ridiculous.

Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca)
secretary-general Paul Selvaraj when contacted said that reason given by
Prasarana was not good enough to implement the ‘fee’ as the train service has
yet to improve.

Paul then told FMT that instead of making profit the
government linked company should have focus more on how to improve its good
service to the commuters.

“No charge should be impose on commuters, it is not a good
idea. Rather than making out profits they should upgrade its service for the
people,”

“The reason given was to avoid fraud cases but if you look
at parents who accompanied their children and then return to their entry
station, it is for safety reason and I don’t think it is necessary to impose
such fee,”

“It does not justify the reason. Public transportation is
not improving and the government has given a low priority on this matter.
Before you increase or implement a fee, please make sure you service is good,”
he said.

Echoing Pual’s sentiment is the Muslim Consumer Association
(PPIM) chief activist Nadzim Johan who urged Prasarana to identify other way to
prevent fraud cases and has also labeled Prasarana as unethical for imposing
such fee in their bid to prevent fraud.

“They should look for another way to prevent the fraud
cases. Why is it so easy for them to impose the fee when there can be other
ways to reduce the burden of the people,”

“Have an inspector to check on passengers with legit passes
or tickets for example,”

“This is unethical and something has to be done by Prasarana
to improve its service. From what I see, the timing of the implementation is
also not good as we are currently facing with lots of price issues,”

Nadzim also urged Prasarana to assemble more huge signage on
the stations to inform users about train systems or notice on service
suspension.

“They have to inform the people, although they have signage
at the front gate, they should have had more signs or bigger signs so people
won’t get confuse,” he added.

Yesterday, Prasarana Communications and Media Affairs senior
manager Azhar Ghazali told FMT that the decision to impose the minimum charge
was due to the increase of fraud and abuse cases.

“The fee is 70 sen for LRT stations and RM 1.20 for monorail
stations and the amount of the charge is based on the minimum fare when
traveling on the LRT and the monorail line,” Azhar added.

He cited examples of people boarding trains to accompany
their friends to another station, without disembarking, they then return back
to the station of initial entry, which prior to platform fee imposition was
non-chargable.

This was in response to a recent complaint by a commuter
whose Touch n Go card value was deducted eventhough the LRT train service had
been suspended.

Prasarana said that ‘platform fee’ charges imposed on Light
Rail Transit (LRT) and KL Monorail commuters is similar to what many other
countries charge