SINGAPORE: In a Facebook post from Monday (Feb 9), Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) said that the recent move from the government to tighten rules on vehicles registered overseas is a positive one, given the number of such vehicles, especially ones registered in Malaysia, seen on Singapore’s streets.
In 2024, Assoc Prof Lim had posed a Parliamentary Question regarding whether the Land Transport Authority (LTA) tracks Malaysian-registered cars that come to Singapore, and how many additional cars they add to the total number of vehicles in the city-state over and above the Vehicle Quota System (VQS) limit.
He explained in his post that this had been brought about by the MP observing that there seems to be a “disproportionate number” of Malaysian license plates on the cars he sees in Singapore.
The VQS limits the number of cars in Singapore to one million, and Assoc Prof Lim expressed the concern that if there is an unchecked number of foreign vehicles, this could add to congested roads as well as undermine the COE’s main aim to control the intensity of road usage.
Then Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat answered Assoc Prof Lim by saying that the average number of foreign-registered cars in Singapore each day is less than one per cent of the local vehicle population.
While one per cent may seem like a small or even acceptable number, the WP MP wrote that “1 per cent is 10,000 cars, which is several times more than the average number of COEs made available every month.
If foreign-registered cars are also plying the roads at a greater rate than average—which is expected, since tourists are often on the road, whereas the majority of local cars are used mainly to go to and from work—then their impact on congestion is commensurately greater.”
Therefore, the announcement of the tightening of rules for foreign vehicles is a “positive” move, he wrote. They include removing the yearly 10 free Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) days and the free VEP hours on weekdays, as well as higher VEP fees starting from next year.
“This will narrow the imbalance in the cost of driving a locally versus foreign-registered car, which has naturally increased as a result of rising COE prices,” he added.
Assoc Prof Lim did acknowledge, however, that because of the new regulations, fewer Malaysians might come to Singapore to shop, or Malaysia may make a reciprocal move. Cross-border workers could also be affected by them as well.
“But if anything, the costs of driving to Malaysia have already increased since 2024 (with their VEP charges), with little move thus far on our part. And motorcycle charges remain comparatively low, so the effect on motorbiking commuters will be muted,” he added. /TISG
Read also: Jamus Lim: We should have moved on from the events of Raeesahgate a long time ago
