If you had not read the news and you are someone who lives in johor and work in singapore your in for a very nasty surprise. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told a crowd in Johor Bahru today that they will start implementing Vehicle Entry Permit fees for all cars entering Johor.
Lets look at things in full perspective , the debate of this VEP started off when the Singapore government made an announcement that VEP fees for all foreign cars (Not Only Malaysian, Thailand Cars Inclusive) will be increased from $20 to $35.
It has generated some sort of a media sensation in our neighbouring country, claiming that its not fair , they too should charge VEP for Singapore cars.
Well here’s the problem , Singaporeans spent hundreds and thousands of dollars when buying a car for what is known as COE (Certificate Of Entitlement) , without this certificate you are not allowed to own or drive a car on the roads, Secondly we pay high road tax rates each year ,Thirdly we pay ERP fees almost every day & very high insurance premiums here.
Why so ? obviously if you ask any Singaporean they will tell you in a small island like Singapore , Space is at a premium, that is why the government does not want you to drive a car and instead add on to the already poor traffic conditions in Singapore.
So what do they do implement VEP for foreign cars (not restricted to Malaysian cars, but cars from any country) this is in line with the country plan to discourage people from driving and instead taking public transport.
But you do have to understand and know this fact , every year foreign cars are given “10 free VEP days” Singaporeans ourself’s do not enjoy this privilege.
To say the least even our OPC car drivers don’t get 10 free E-day license each year. So for us to give this to them its considered very generous.
They are given 10 days each year to drive on our “premium roads” each year.
Furthermore Malaysian youth UMNO chief came out with this statement a few days ago and i quote
It is time to act, we are losing in terms of revenue, they don’t pay the summons, and when they increased the fee, it was the call for us to act,
Now lets look at this context , Malaysia claims that us Singaporeans do not pay their traffic summons and by having such a system they are loosing revenue, here’s a big problem about their claim
Where do you actually pay this summons ? go a google search “where to pay malaysian summons ” you are not provided with any good results . Fine you have your mygov.malaysia.gov.my site there , it only tells you , you can pay the summon online via some portal.
If you have ever tried to pay for a summon online using a Singapore visa / master-card on this portals you will know that you get an error message “Only Malaysian Issued Cards are accepted” , Transactions cannot be processed. So how to pay ? , ask your customs officer , he simply reply “Tak Tahu (Don’t know) ”
It’s totally different in Singapore , when you are fined , you can go to any 7-11 , AXS stations , SAM , even online payments are accepted , they don’t restrict you from making payments using cards issued only by SINGAPORE BANKS. This is clear cut and at the back of the summons is clearly written where you can pay.
So i would like to ask this question, is it fair to say we don’t pay when you don’t even provide information on where to pay or provide the proper facility / channels to pay ?
Furthermore Singaporeans on the other hand are unhappy with Malaysians because there have been numerous accidents where Malaysian cars bang onto our cars and simply get off spot off , We are unable to claim their insurance because either its too complicated or they just don’t have any insurance on their vehicles.
Personally i too was once a victim of such an accident , a Malaysian car who could not wait while i was trying to park my car in a carpark simply dash in front of my car and hit my front bumper ,
Result is i had to pocket replacement cost of the bumper out of my own pocket , while he tried to claim against my insurance. When i & the traffic police officer asked him for his insurance details he simply said he had none ? , Is this considered fair.
Plus he simply got off with a “Stern Warning” according to the letter i received from the traffic police , Is that considered fair Mr Najib Sir ? your drivers bang into us and try to made fraudulent claim against us.
Therefore i urge the Land Transport Authority to act , since Malaysia wants to make Singaporeans pay VEP (to level the plain field), then LTA should make it mandatory to get all Malaysian cars to PURCHASE insurance every single time they enter Singapore, so as to protect us Singapore citizens also.
Remember Singapore by itself is your largest foreign investor in iskandar Malaysia , you do this to us , we pull the plug on this investments come 2016 , we see how Iskandar Malaysia turns out to be , “A mushy land plot or a well developed area”
One interesting point to note is this we Singaporeans do not need to travel to JB , we spend our money there leisurely , at times we are victims of robberies and yet we still choose to travel there to shop at the same time helping the Johor economy.
Malaysia is simply shooting itself in the leg by doing this , when Singaporeans don’t see the need to enter because the cost will just be the same as shopping in Singapore , we won’t border wasting 1 or 2 hours at the customs .
Instead we rather help our own Small Buisness Owners by buying things from them (as its the same value) and thus the Singapore economy grows even further , Singapore dollar goes even higher then Malaysian ringgit ,you will be at the loosing end as the source of income from Singaporeans is now gone and your economy will be stagnated .
Come 2016 when we vote the opposition in and they start getting rid of Malaysian workers by introducing strict foreign employment acts and your people here in Singapore get laid off and can’t find a job in Johor, because your economy there will become stagnant don’t come gei gei remove VEP and promote your country to us.
Fizzy Dizzy
TRS Contributor