Singaporean motorists irate over Malaysia’s VEP implementation

A letter writer to the Straits Times Forum page has expressed the frustrations of many Singaporean Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) applicants who have neither received the radio frequency identification tag nor have received any information about where to collect the identification tag.

The writer, Dr Richard Martorano, said that despite many inquiries, the Malaysian authorities have only said that one can still enter Malaysia without the VEP tag. The authorities have also told him that “the system is under maintenance”. But he wondered how a system that was never implemented be under maintenance?

In noting that the VEP system is in shambles before it starting, he asked where all the money collected from Singaporeans went and why isn’t Singapore protesting.

Singapore’s Transport Ministry has previously described the road charge scheme as “discriminatory” because it is applied only at Malaysia’s checkpoints with Singapore and so is biased against Singapore-registered vehicles.

The Malaysian Transport Minister had earlier said that at least 200,365 Singapore-based vehicle owners have registered online ahead of the VEP’s full implementation and that his Ministry was in the final stages of synchronising its system with its Singapore counterpart for effective implementation.