Liow says unaware of Singapore's plan to raise road charge

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said he was not aware of any move by Singapore to raise the road charge at its two land entry points to Johor as reported by the media.

It was reported that the move was to match Malaysia's road charge.

Liow said the transport ministries of both countries had exchanged views on the matter from time to time, but he had not heard anything about Singapore raising its charge.

"Singapore to raise their road charge? No ... they never said this to me. Singapore had implemented their road charge a long time ago, we are only about to start now.

"We already informed them one year ago. This is an ongoing bilateral issue, they understand this issue, so no surprise for them," he told reporters after witnessing the signing of a memorandum of understanding between TAR University College (TAR UC) and Tsinghua University here.

Reports quoting a statement from Singapore's transport ministry said Singapore would match "in some form" Malaysia's road charge of RM20 at the two land entry points to Johor - the Causeway and the Second Link.

The reports said Malaysia's road charge was "discriminatory against Singapore-registered vehicles as it is only applied at the Singapore checkpoints".

Liow said there was no such thing as discrimination whereby the road charge will take place at all borders, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia with a similar charge of RM20 per car.

He said the road charge, which was implemented on Nov 1, was going on smoothly with an average of 20,000 Singapore-registered vehicles entering Malaysia daily via the Causeway and the Second Link. -- Bernama