Putting an end to cloned cars
> RTD to implement the Vehicle Entry Permit system later this year
KUALA LUMPUR: The Road Transport Department (RTD) expects the ongoing issue of cloned cars in the country to be put to bed once the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) system is implemented later this year.
Its director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad said despite JPJ confiscating 1,708 cloned cars since the end of 2014, there are still between 3,000 and 5,00 such cars on the road.
“But this issue is only a temporary problem. When the VEP is implemented, I thing the issue of cloned cars will be settled,” he told reporters after attending the 70th RTD Day, Kuala Lumpur city level, here yesterday.
Ismail said the system, once implemented, would also see foreign vehicles that are compounded in the country being barred from returning to their home countries, unless the summons are settled.
He added that the VEP would be implemented in phases, with the first by year-end for vehicles from Singapore. Phase two will be for vehicles from Thailand and phase three, vehicles from Sabah, Sarawak and Indonesia.
Ismail said ever since they started their operations against cloned cars in 2014, aided by the department’s Special Elite Force, the cloned car activities have slowed down.
Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Ab Aziz Kaprawi had, on April 25 at the Dewan Negara, said the VEP system would see a RM20 charge per entry for each foreign vehicle.
He was quoted as saying that the system would serve as a medium to record details of vehicle-owners from Singapore and a medium to monitor overstaying Singaporeans here and curb cloning of vehicles.
The system is set to be implemented at the two border crossings with Singapore – the Causeway and the Second Link – for phase one, with each vehicle-owner to get a radio-frequency identification card for a RM10 administration fee.