JOHOR BARU: The Road Transport Depart­ment (JPJ) is in the final stages of synchronising its system in preparation for the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP).

To date, at least 200,365 Singaporean vehicle owners had registered online ahead of the VEP implementation, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.

The date of implementation had yet to be fixed as the ministry was still gathering online registrations and data, he added.

“We are synchronising the registered data with JPJ’s MySIKAP system. The VEP will be paid via an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag.

“The tag is like a sticker with a barcode that should be placed on the windshield of the vehicle,” he told pressmen during a visit to the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex (CIQ) yesterday.

Once the implementation began, Liow said, the tags could be collected at the stations listed on the portal where the vehicle owners had registered earlier.

He said unlike the recently implemented RM20 road charge (RC), the VEP was important to weed out cloned cars and foreign-registered vehicles that entered Malaysia without exiting, as well as those with unpaid compounds or traffic summonses.

So far, so good: Liow monitoring the traffic situation and RC operations during his visit to the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar CIQ complex in Johor Baru.

Liow encouraged Singaporeans who had not registered to do so.

“I would like to point out that this is not a move to discriminate against Singapore-registered vehicles as the same charges will be introduced in stages at other entry points in the country – at the borders of Indonesia, Thailand and Brunei,” he said.

The RFID tags could eventually be used to pay the RC as well, as an alternative to the Touch ’n Go payment system used currently, he added.

A fee of RM10 would be charged upon registration via https://vep.jpj.gov.my.

The VEP is renewable every five years.

On the RC, which started on Nov 1 for foreign-registered vehicles entering Malaysia through Johor, Liow said operations had been smooth so far.

“We have JPJ officers and enforcement personnel monitoring the 38 lanes at the CIQ here and 24 lanes at the Second Link to ensure there are no hiccups,” he added.

Resource : The Star Online