Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan has said that the country will match the RM20 road charge that Malaysia imposed on 1 November last year and that the details of the matching charge will be revealed soon by the Ministry of Transport.
Mr Khaw also said in today's Parliament that Singapore-registered vehicles entering Malaysia via the checkpoints at Woodlands and Tuas have paid an estimated RM13.9m (S$4.48m) in road charges between 1 November and 20 December last year.
This is in response to questions filed by Mr Ang Wei Neng from Jurong GRC, who asked what is the estimated amount of road charges (RM20 per vehicle) that Singapore vehicles have been paying to the Malaysia since 1 November 2016 based on the number of Singapore vehicles leaving Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints and whether LTA intends to impose similar charges on foreign vehicles entering Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints in the near future.
The Minister stated that the Government has a long-standing policy of matching any levy, tolls or fees charged by Malaysia for using the road links between Singapore and Malaysia to ensure that Malaysia takes into consideration our response whenever they raise their tolls or introduce a new levy.
The road charge is collected each time motorists enter Malaysia via Touch n’ Go cards at the two land entry points in Johor, the Causeway and the Second Link.
When asked whether the number of vehicles going into Malaysia had gone down significantly since the charge came into effect, Mr Khaw said that there was no noticeable drop, noting that the levying of the charges coincided with the year-end holiday period and also that most of the vehicles crossing at the checkpoints were motorcycles, for which the charges did not apply.
