PUTRAJAYA - Malaysia will begin enforcement action on Singapore-registered vehicles entering the country without a Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) from July 1, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on June 4.

The announcement comes eight years after the plan was first mooted in 2017 and implementation of the system was shelved twice, in 2019 and again in 2020.

Loke said ample time had been given since May 2024 for foreign-registered, private vehicles to register for the VEP system before entering Malaysia by land from Singapore. If found without a valid VEP, drivers of non-Malaysian registered vehicles will receive a compound fine of RM300 (S$91). "Foreign vehicle owners issued with a summons for not having a valid VEP must settle the fine before exiting Malaysia," he told a press conference at the Transport Ministry in Putrajaya. And they must also register for VEP before leaving the country.

Loke said 231,018 Singapore-registered private individually owned vehicles have signed up for VEP, with 15 per cent yet to activate the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. A further 2,660 private company vehicles have been issued the tags.

Loke had announced in May 2024 that foreign-registered vehicles entering Malaysia from Singapore must have a VEP tag starting from Oct 1 that year. A similiar VEP system is being planned for foreign-registered vehicles entering from southern Thailand.

But on Oct 4, he had said that enforcement action against motorists without a VEP had yet to begin and those without the tag would only be given a warning upon exiting Malaysia, reminding them to apply for the permit.

The RFID tag allows Malaysian authorities to identify foreign-registered vehicles on the country's roads and to track if there are any outstanding fines for traffic offences, which must be settled before they exit the country.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.