Govt will have study first whether VEP charge should be raised - Liow

The government will have conduct a study first whether to raise the Vehicle Entry Permit fee to be equivalent to the amount charged by Singapore, said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

He said the matter would have to be discussed with various parties.

"We will study from time to time if there is a need to increase the amount of the VEP charge," he told reporters here today after launching the national- level road safety campaign and Ops Bersepadu (Integrated operation) from Jan 21 to Feb 5 in conjunction with the 2017 Chinese New Year.

According to him, Singapore was imposing among other charges the VEP at S$35 (RM109) daily and the RRC-Reciprocal Road Charge (RRC) of S$6.40 (RM20) starting from February 15 for foreign vehicles entering the republic.

The VEP introduced by Malaysia only requires foreign vehicle owners to pay a registration fee of RM10 which can be renewed after five years.

Malaysia has been imposing a road charge of RM20 for each foreign vehicle entering Johor since Nov 1 2016.

The media in the city-state reported that all cars registered outside of the country needed to pay RRC of S$6.40 for each entry into Singapore via Tuas or Woodlands starting from Feb 15.

On another matter, Liow said the proposal by Kuala Lumpur City Hall to prohibit small capacity engine motorcycles or kapcai entering the federal capital should be studied first.

"The proposal should be studied as the motorcycle is not required to carry out inspection on exhaust carbon emission...so far Puspakom only conducts inspection on commercial and private vehicles," he said.

On Ops Bersepadu, he said it would focus on law enforcement via patrols and static concepts at about 100 black spots.

Apart from that, there will be a ban on vehicles carrying certain tonnage on Jan 26 and 27 as well as Jan 31 and Feb 1 on federal and state roads.

Liow added that the value of losses from road accidents exceeded RM8.4 billion last year.

"The road accident rate is worrying as the total number of fatalities rose to 7,152 deaths in 2016 compared to 6,706 in 2015," he said.

According to him, 62.7 per cent of the deaths involved motorcyclists.

-- BERNAMA