Starting from 1 November at 12.01am, Malaysia will charge Singapore-registered cars entering Malaysia at two of the land checkpoints, Woodlands and Tuas second link.
Malaysian Transport Minister, Liow Tiong Lai stated to the press that the Singapore cars will have to pay a road charge for RM21 (S$6.60) levy.
The local news said that Malaysian government has never practised discrimination in implementing the road charge (RC) for foreign-registered vehicles from Singapore to enter Malaysia as it will also be implemented at the entry points from other countries in phases.
Mr Liow said that the RC implementation has been notified to his counterpart in Singapore in advance.
“Singapore has been charging RC on us for decades. We are only about to start now. There is no discrimination. We will impose the road charge not only at our border with Singapore, but also our borders with Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia with a similar charge of RM20 per car,” Mr Liow told reporters in Segamat on 29 October.
According to Mr Liow, the state government would receive 25 percent or RM5 from the RM20 charge imposed on foreign-registered vehicles from Singapore, in contrast to the oppositions’ claim that the state government would incur a loss with the implementation.
An average of 20,000 Singapore-registered vehicles entered Malaysia daily via the Causeway and the Second Link.
It is said that Malaysia also has plans to implement a Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) requirement at the two land checkpoints with Singapore, which requires Singapore cars to register with Malaysia’s Road Transport Department before entering.
Road users will be charged a one-time fee of RM10 (S$3.30) to install a radio frequency identification (RFID) electronic chip which is valid for five years.
A total of 144,000 Singapore-registered vehicles had been recorded under the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) system as of July 2016.
Mr Liow said the that start date of the VEP will be announced closer to the launch and added that it will eventually apply to the other 10 road entry checkpoints into Malaysia, from Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia.
