Should rich drivers pay higher traffic fines? Malaysian social activist says yes

MALAYSIA: Should traffic fines for serious offences be linked to offenders’ income levels to ensure penalties have an equal deterrent effect across all income groups? This is what social activist Lee Lam Thye says, raising many questions and comments from online users.

Lee, chairman of the Alliance for a Safe Community, said flat-rate fines are unfair because the same penalty barely affects the rich but hits low-income offenders much harder.

“For a person with substantial financial means, a fine of RM500 (S$158.91) or even RM1,000 may have little impact. On the other hand, the same amount could impose a significant burden on a low-income individual,” he said. He also pointed out that fines for serious traffic offences should, where possible, be linked to an offender’s income to make them fairer.

“Such a system has been implemented in several countries, particularly for serious traffic violations, to ensure that penalties are felt equally across different income groups,” he said.

Lee said several countries have successfully implemented income-based or graduated penalty systems.

Several countries have indeed implemented income-based traffic fines, commonly known as “day-fine” systems. Penalties are calculated proportionally to the offender’s daily income and the severity of the offence. This ensures that the financial sting of a penalty is felt equally regardless of wealth.

A quick online search will show which countries are using this model. Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark seem to be the European nations that implemented the system, with Finland being the pioneer of the day-fine system.

It means the same speeding offence can result in dramatically different fines. But this depends on the person behind the wheel.

In extreme cases, high-income drivers have been fined well over $100,000 for relatively minor violations, per a post written on a Neil deGrasse Tyson Facebook group in December last year.

Some Facebook users ridiculed the day-fine in Finland.

One said one could say that (higher fines for people earning more money) about food and services, and health care. “Hell, everything. No. It should be fair under the law. People treated. Equally, regardless of how much you have or make. ‘You make more, so things should be more expensive for you’ …. that’s ridiculous.”

In Malaysia, a citizen disagreed with the new fines proposal. “Nope. A fine should be a fixed sum….not dependent on income,” they said.

However, others backed the idea, saying BMW owners can finally pay fines suitable for T-20 Malaysians. “Top 20%” refers to the highest-earning 20% of households in the country.

They are currently the subject of a lot of speculation and discussions in Malaysia, particularly on whether they should also benefit from fuel subsidies.

Another said, “That’s it lah, BMW owners finally paying T20 prices for forgetting where their indicator stalk is. But honestly, Myvi drivers need their own special ‘King of the Road’ tax bracket. If your car can double as a submarine and a racecar, you should be paying fines in pure street cred, not RM.”

For those who are sarcastic, they compare the fines for parking violations to speeding on highways.

“Imagine a BMW driver getting a RM5,000 fine for double-parking in Bangsar, while a Myvi driver gets fined RM2.50 for breaking the sound barrier on the LDP,” one commented.

Someone went further, saying there should be jail time for those who fail to stop at red lights, pedestrian crossings and so on.

“For serious offences, such as failing to stop at a red light, especially at pedestrian crossings, jeopardising people’s lives and occurring very commonly, jail time should be mandatory. This would serve as a stronger deterrent than just a fine,” they wrote.