Singapore motorists face on-the-spot fines as Malaysia enforces permits

After years of delays, Malaysia began enforcing its Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) scheme at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, with Singaporean motorists crossing the Causeway without an activated permit facing on-the-spot fines of 300 Malaysian ringgit (US$71).

Malaysia announced in May last year that all foreign-registered vehicles entering from Singapore would be required to use the VEP from October 2024, prompting a last-minute rush by Singapore drivers to register their cars and triggering a bottleneck in applications.

The permit uses a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to track foreign vehicles and check for outstanding fines or traffic offences. First proposed in 2017, the scheme was postponed twice – in 2019 and 2020 – before enforcement finally began this week.

Minutes before the deadline, about 50 officers from Malaysia’s road transport department (JPJ) were seen setting up a roadblock at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar customs, immigration and quarantine complex in Johor Bahru, according to local media.

Within the first hour of checks, 10 Singapore-registered vehicles were issued summonses, The Straits Times reported.

More than 300,000 people travel across the Johor-Singapore Causeway every day, making it one of the busiest land border crossings in the world.