Singapore to increase vehicle entry fee as a reaction to Malaysia's implementation of VEP

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia has implemented a new vehicle entry fee which also requires a pre-registration with the Road Transport Department for the vehicles coming from Singapore. Regarding this fee, the Malaysian deputy transport minister Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi said- “from next month, Singapore vehicles going to Malaysia are required to register with the country's Road Transport Department or they would be barred from entering.” He also added that Malaysia is also planning to roll out a second phase of the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) which would cover the Malaysian-Thailand border, by the middle of next year. The vehicle owners would have to pay RM10 for the road charge which would be valid for a period of five years and the mandatory registration would apply to all private vehicles, public buses, taxis, good vehicles and the diplomatic cars as well. Moreover, from October 1, Singapore registered private passenger vehicles would have to pay a fee of RM20 per entry for the VEP.

In response to this news, the Singapore's transport ministry said that it would also consider matching the vehicle entry fee that Malaysia is imposing on them as it is a discrimination against the Singapore vehicles. A ministry spokesperson from Singapore said- “We note that Malaysia's new vehicle entry fee will be imposed only on foreign-registered vehicles entering Malaysia via Johor. This discriminates against Singapore vehicles, and we will consider matching it in some form after we have studied its implementation.” He further added- “ Such costs and inconveniences could discourage Singaporeans from going to Malaysia  in particular, Johor for leisure purposes such as shopping, entertainment, sightseeing, holiday, etc.”

In August last year, Singapore raised its entry permit charges for foreign cars and good vehicles. This was done for the first time since 1994. In response to this, the Singapore's Land Transport Authority had explained that the increase was made to equalise the cost of owning and using a foreign-registered vehicle in Singapore with that for a Singapore registered vehicle. As a revenge, Malaysia also raised the tolls at Causeway in the same month. Two months later, Singapore also followed the same suit. In this tit-for-tat, the ones who are suffering are the commuters, who travel on both sides.