Liow: S’pore must understand our stand

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government respects Singapore’s decision to implement the Reciprocal Road Charge (RRC) but the latter should also understand Malaysia’s stand on road charges, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (pic).

He said Malaysia’s Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) is different compared to that of Singapore’s.

“Owners of foreign-registered vehicles would only have to pay a registration fee of RM10 which comes with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

“After five years, they will renew it for another RM10. I would like to make this very clear so the Singaporeans will understand that we’re not actually taking a reciprocal action against them for the VEP that they introduced back in 1973.

“We have conveyed our opinion to Singapore because the rate charges that we introduced in Malaysia starting November last year have very minimal charge and it is different from the VEP,” Liow said, adding that Malaysia did not reciprocate when Singapore introduced the VEP back in 1973.

He was speaking to reporters after launching the Pahlawan sculpture and the IMPerfect Creation book by local artist Ch’ng Huck Teng at the Pink Guy Gallery here yesterday.

The Singapore government wrote a letter to Liow to confirm that they will introduce the RRC of S$6.40 (RM20).

He said Malaysia will continue to engage Singapore in dialogues and discussions to make them understand the Malaysian Government’s decision.

“We are not discriminating against Singaporean cars. We will also introduce the same road charges at the Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei borders.

“From time to time, we can review our VEP charges, the mechanism and the way we charge.

“As of now, we’re not taking a reciprocal action so we want them to be clear about this,” he said.

Starting Nov 1 last year, Malaysia started imposing the RM20 road charge on foreign-registered vehicles (excluding motorcycles) at the Causeway and Second Link.

The ruling is supposed to be implemented in phases at Malaysia’s other entry points bordering Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia.