Over 4 million cars enter Johor from S’pore, generating $26.8 million in road revenue for Malaysia
As at September, on average, about 89,818 trips to Malaysia were made daily by various types of vehicles by road. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
Vihanya Rakshika
Correspondent
UPDATED
OCT 22, 2024, 08:21 PM
The amount of road charges collected from vehicles entering Malaysia from Singapore was almost RM88 million (S$26.8 million) between January and September, and is expected to surpass RM100 million for the year of 2024.
This is because more vehicles are expected to enter Johor from Singapore, Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke said in a Parliament session on Oct 22, according to a report in the New Straits Times.
The RM100 million figure would surpass the RM91,037,040 collected in road charges in 2023.
A total of 4,397,229 vehicles from Singapore crossed the border to enter Malaysia from January to September, with RM87,944,580 in road charges collected, Mr Loke said in response to a parliamentary question about the number of Singapore-registered vehicles entering Malaysia and the road charges collected till September.
All foreign-registered private vehicles – except motorcycles – entering Malaysia from Singapore must pay an RM20 fee.
Detailed breakdown of vehicle crossings
Mr Loke further explained that, as at September, on average, about 89,818 trips were made daily by various types of vehicles through the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex at both the Sultan Iskandar Building and the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex. The breakdown of vehicle types is as follows:- Cars: 31,194
- Motorcycles: 53,000
- Buses: 3,531
- Lorries: 2,093
Road charge revenue and public transport
Responding to a supplementary question about whether road charge collections would be used to improve public transport in Johor Bahru and other districts of the state, Mr Loke said the revenue from road charges goes into the consolidated revenue account. RM5 is returned to the Johor state government for every RM20 in road charges collected, he added.Mr Loke said he would discuss with the Finance Ministry the channelling of road charge to public transport.
“With the RTS (Rapid Transit System) project, we certainly need more buses and an additional budget.”
The RTS Link is a 4km light rail transit shuttle service between Bukit Chagar station in Johor Bahru and Woodlands North station in Singapore, and is under construction now. It is expected to be operational by January 2027.
The link has a capacity of 10,000 passengers an hour in each direction and is expected to relieve congestion at the Johor-Singapore Causeway, currently the world’s busiest border crossing.
