The federal Transport Minister’s idea of no more display of road tax stickers on private vehicles may save lots of money for the government. The government would eventually no need to issue the road tax stickers but only receipts for payment made to motor vehicle owners. But such a policy is not helping the people to alleviate their financial problems and neither the policy will help the business of the automobile industry.

What citizens want is to have the road tax be reduced as road tax imposed at the moment are very high and many vehicle owners are not able to pay for the road tax. For this reason, we often heard that there were cases of fake road tax stickers or discs being used or sold in the market. No road tax should be collected from motorcycles and a reduction of at least 50% of the current road tax to be paid to the government is sought to help Sabahans and Sarawakians for motor vehicles because economy are yet to recover from the tough times of Covid-19. A no road tax for motor cycle can help boost the motorcycle ana automobile business. This in turn can help the government to help its coffers from other forms of taxes.

A 50% reduction for road tax for motor vehicles in Sabah and Sarawak is justified given the poor quality of road in Sabah and Sarawak. They should be made to pay much less road tax than for motor vehicles used in Malaya.

It is timely that the federal government returns all revenues that had been collected by the federal government through the Land Transport Department to Sarawak government over the decades so that Sarawak could control and use these revenues to develop its roads. At the moment, Sarawak is at the mercy of the federal government to complete its Pan Borneo Highway and and other roads. The quality and safety of this Pan Borneo Highway need to be re-evaluated as there are too many accidents on this road. It is timely that all powers of the Land Transport Department be returned to Sarawak too so that Sarawak can manage this department and control revenues collected by this department.

VOON LEE SHAN
Parti Bumi Kenyalang
12 Feb 2023