KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's Transport Minister Anthony Loke said on Monday (Jan 6) that the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) system is on hold, as his ministry works to make it easier for vehicles from Singapore to register for a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

Mr Loke said the ministry will spend the next six months to figure out a way for easier installation of the VEP-RFID tag, he told reporters, as quoted by Malay Mail online news.

"If we implement the system now, it'll be problematic. We're working on a programme and hopefully by the second half of the year, we can implement. For now we give it six months to try to solve the problem," Mr Loke said.

Malaysia last Saturday (Jan 4) deferred the implementation of the VEP system for outbound traffic at Johor's Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) and Sultan Abu Bakar Complex (KSAB) because a large number of Singapore-registered vehicles have yet to install the RFID tags.

Road Transport Department director-general Shaharuddin Khalid said that based on records, over 230,000 Singapore vehicles have registered for the VEP, but only 60,000 have been installed with the RFID tag.

Mr Loke said on Monday that "there are easily more than a million cars coming into Johor".

The BSI is located at the Johor side of the Causeway at Woodlands, while KSAB is located the Johor side of the Second Link at Tuas

Mr Loke, when asked what the problem was, said it had to do with installation, Malay Mail reported.

"The problem is the installations," said Loke. "The system done by the vendor only has four stations to install RFID. It'll take a long time. We are working on finding a better mechanism to make it simpler and easier for Singapore cars to install RFID."