VEP requirement for Singapore-registered cars to be enforced by Malaysia from July 1

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.

Mr 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$90). Only cashless payments will be accepted at Road Transport Department (JPJ) counters, JPJ mobile counters or online via the MyEG system.

“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 a VEP before leaving the country.

Mr Loke said 231,018 Singapore-registered private individually owned vehicles have signed up for the 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.

Private company vehicles that have applied for a VEP but have yet to receive the relevant approvals will not be subject to fines. Instead, they will receive a reminder notice and be allowed to exit Malaysia.

“We will provide some leeway, as many (Singapore-registered) private company vehicles failed the pre-registration process, which involves multiple steps and extensive company documentation,” he said.

However, private company vehicles that have not registered for a VEP must settle any compound fines and complete their VEP registration before being allowed to exit Malaysia.

To avoid congestion at the Causeway and Second Link, Mr Loke said enforcement teams will be stationed at various points near the checkpoints, following consultations with Johor Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi.

Mr Loke thanked the Singapore Government for its cooperation in implementing Malaysia’s VEP registration.

“I am confident that Singaporean drivers are law-abiding and will comply by registering for Malaysia’s VEP. Prior to today’s press conference, I communicated with my counterpart, Acting Singapore Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow, to keep him informed,” he said.

Mr 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 similar VEP system is being planned for foreign-registered vehicles entering from southern Thailand.

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

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

Malaysia’s appointed vendor for handling VEP registrations, TCSens, told The Straits Times on June 4 that it expects an increase in applications and appointments from Singaporean motorists to have VEP tags fixed on their vehicles at its four centres located in Johor Bahru and Singapore.

However, it does not expect the numbers to be as high as when Malaysia announced in May 2024 the mandatory VEP tagging for vehicles by October that year.

“We expect the increase in applications is likely driven more by private company vehicles rather than individually owned ones,” a TCSens spokesperson said, noting the average daily registrations in April and May 2025 of some 130 tags, from 300 to 400 a day in January and February 2025.

Checks by ST at two VEP centres – Sunway Big Box near the Second Link highway and Danga Bay in downtown Johor Bahru – showed 10 to 30 motorists queueing for assistance at each venue on the afternoon of June 4.

At the Danga Bay centre, Mr Jerry Yue, 71, a Singaporean real estate and financial broker, said the process was efficient. “It took only five minutes to be served by TCSens staff.”

“For the past few months, very few cars came here. Probably because there hadn’t been any enforcement announcements,” said a TCSens employee at the Sunway site. “But after today’s news, we’ve been briefed by management to prepare for a surge.”

Some drivers, however, have reported technical difficulties with the TCSens online portal used for VEP registration.

“The staff told me the site was down, and I couldn’t log in,” said Ms Zen Lee, 26, a management consultant from Singapore. “We were waiting for the one-time password to log in, but it never arrived.”