MIRI: The Road Transport Department (RTD) of Malaysia will look into implementing the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) at Sungai Tujoh Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) here soon.

According to RTD Malaysia director-general Dato’ Sri Shaharuddin Khalid, VEP is a permit issued by the RTD (under Section 66H of the Road Transport Act 1987) that allows the entry of foreign vehicles into Malaysia where owners or representatives duly appointed by the owners of all foreign registered vehicles entering Malaysia are required to register online for VEP through its portal with a one-off payment of RM10.

Shaharuddin said the VEP registered vehicles will then be issued non-transferrable Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) tags that uniquely identify each vehicle.

“I will bring this matter to the ministry. Through VEP we will register all vehicles coming in and out of our border and before the driver leaves the border, we will find out if he has a summons or not and if he does, he will be asked to settle the summons before leaving Malaysia,” he said during a press conference at RTD office here today (April 25).

When asked to comment on the summonses imposed by Brunei authorities on Malaysian vehicles with tinted glass, Shaharuddin said it is best for Malaysian drivers to follow the rules of the country that they enter.

“It is their law and we must respect it although it is not the same with our laws, where tinted glass for vehicle allowed in Malaysia is within the specified visible light transmission (VLT) rate of 70 percent for the windshield, 50 percent for front left and right windows, and 30 percent for rear windows.

“The Brunei Department of Land Transport requires 70 per cent VLT and this is something we need to respect and follow,” he said.

Meanwhile on the summonses where Brunei number plates bears similarity to Malaysian state of Selangor and Kedah number plates which also begin with “B” and “K”, Shaharuddin said the confusion of the matter has been resolved and the system for drivers to check their summonses has been improved.

Also present yesterday were state RTD director Mohd Syafiq Anas Abdullah and Miri RTD head Maya Morshidi.