Transport Ministry to review suspension of road tax renewals in post offices
Monday, 02 Sep 20192:02 PM MYT
MIRI (Bernama): The Transport Ministry is prepared to review an order to stop road tax renewals for private vehicles with a capacity of 2000cc and above at post offices in Sarawak, Sabah, Langkawi and Penang, effective Sunday (Sept 1).
Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook said a meeting will be held with Road Transport Department (JPJ) director-general Datuk Seri Shaharuddin Khalid this week to see if the directive was viable.
"The instruction was from the JPJ, not the Transport Ministry. I understand that the JPJ did so to reduce the loss of government revenue as there are vehicles which are registered in peninsular Malaysia but the road tax is renewed in Sabah and Sarawak” he told reporters after launching the Miri DAP headquarters office Monday (Sept 2).
Loke said the JPJ had found that owners of vehicles of 2000cc or more from the peninsular were taking advantage of the cheaper road tax in Sarawak and Sabah by renewing their road tax in post offices there.
At the same time, the interests of the local people in the two states must also be taken into account as they need places to renew their road tax as there were areas in both states where there were no JPJ offices.
Pos Malaysia’s recent announcement to suspend road tax renewals for vehicles of 2000cc and above in post offices in Sarawak, Sabah, Labuan and Langkawi, following instructions from JPJ, had gone viral on social media, with mostly negative reactions from the public.
Internet users, especially from the interior areas of Sarawak, said the move would burden the people who would have to drive more than three hours to JPJ offices to renew their road tax.
Separately, on the proposal to implement the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) at the Malaysia-Brunei border, Loke said this was still being studied.
On April 25 this year, the JPJ director-general announced that the proposal to implement the VEP on all foreign vehicles at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex at the Malaysia-Brunei to monitor foreign vehicles entering the country, especially over traffic summonses, will be forwarded to the Transport Ministry this year. - Bernama
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2019/09/02/transport-ministry-to-review-suspension-of-road-tax-renewals-in-post-offices#ech7ZppcZlM7Sm3J.99
