JOHOR BARU: Singaporean motorists who have yet to register for the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) are advised not to delay further as the Malaysian government will enforce penalties gradually.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Singapore vehicle owners should still apply for the permit, although they are currently allowed to enter and exit Johor following the VEP enforcement date on Oct 1.
“Enforcement will be implemented gradually but I do not want to give a definitive timeline because people will slow down their applications and leave it to the last minute as the deadline nears.“Then there will be another (influx) of applications, which will cause a jam in the system again.
“The government introduced the VEP in 2019 but the enforcement was delayed due to technical issues.
“We have given ample time,” he said after a briefing about the VEP implementation at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex (BSI) here yesterday.
At the moment, Singapore motorists whose VEP applications are still in progress will not face any action from the authorities at both of Johor’s land checkpoints, he said.
“Once they have applied for the permit, their names will be detected in our system. “Even if they have yet to receive their VEP radio frequency identification tags, they will not be issued a notice because their application is still in progress,” he said.
As of Sept 30, a total of 112,658 VEP tags have been issued to Singapore-registered vehicles, he said, adding that 75,412 of the tags have been installed and activated while 37,246 have yet to be activated.
He added that a total of 678 cars were checked randomly at the BSI and Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar (near the Second Link) on Oct 1 and 2, where 93%, or 629 cars, had applied for the VEP.“Only 50 drivers who had not applied for the permit received notices from the inspections.“The notices serve as a reminder for them to apply for the permit as soon as possible to avoid action in the future,” said Loke.
When asked by Singapore media about the information required for the VEP application and data security, Loke assured applicants that Malaysia has the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 to protect such information.
“When Malaysian vehicle owners apply for Singapore’s VEP, we are also asked all sorts of questions by the authorities.
“We are only asking similar questions when Singaporean motorists want to apply for our VEP. You have to be fair to us,” said the minister.
Loke reiterated that Singaporeans are not specifically being targeted for the VEP exercise as the government would also implement it at the Malaysia-Thai border in the northern states soon.
On the government’s plans to open more VEP installation centres to speed up the approval process, Loke said several shopping malls in Johor Baru have approached his ministry to offer them spaces to set up such centres.
“At present, we only have an installation centre in Danga Bay run by our vendor as well as at Road Transport Department offices.
“Shopping malls here have come forward to offer us their space and we are looking at it now,” he added.
It was previously reported that all Singaporean-registered vehicles without a VEP can still enter Johor as usual after the enforcement kicked in on Oct 1.
