Toll charges waived at Johor land immigration checkpoints
MALAYSIA is waiving toll charges for vehicles crossing borders at the Causeway and Second Link Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complexes between Apr 1 and Apr 7.
In a media statement on Wednesday (Mar 30), Malaysia Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the exemption is for Malaysians and other users - which would include Singapore-registered vehicles - who reload or renew their Touch 'n Go stored value cards or SmartTAG.
This value top-up can be done at any petrol stations, convenience stores, or rest and relaxation stops along Malaysia's North-South highway.
"The exemption is to ensure the smooth flow of traffic for both CIQs, as the land checkpoints have closed for nearly two years," said Ismail Sabri.
Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to reopen their land borders for vaccinated travellers starting Apr 1, without the need for Covid-19 pre-departure or arrival tests, nor for quarantine.
Malaysia highway concessionaires company PLUS Expressways expects there will be at least 42,000 vehicles crossing the borders every day.
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The toll charges waiver at the CIQs is on top of the 7-day RM20 (S$6.45) road charges waiver announced on Monday (Mar 28) for Singapore-registered vehicles crossing borders from Apr 1.
Ismail Sabri said the 7-day toll waiver is expected to benefit over 300,000 land route users across Singapore and Malaysia's borders.
To handle the influx of tourists this coming weekend, Johor Chief Minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi said that 2,700 civil servants from various departments, including immigration and police departments, will stand by at both CIQs.
"For travellers who plan to come to Malaysia, they are required to download the MySejahtera mobile phone app and fill in the details of their vaccination information. Once they receive the confirmation from MySejahtera app, they are good to go," he told reporters after overseeing the dry run at Second Link CIQ on Wednesday.
Separately, Malaysia's Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong, who also joined the dry run at Second Link CIQ, said Singapore-registered vehicle owners who have applied for Touch 'n Go RFID (radio frequency identification) stickers online will receive these when arriving at CIQ.
"There will be staff helping the vehicle owners to affix the RFID to their vehicles," he said.
The RFID stickers are linked to an e-wallet, which is in turn linked to a bank account or credit card. This allows vehicle owners to top-up the e-wallet instead of having to physically top-up a Touch 'n Go card.
Currently, 125,790 vehicle owners have applied for the RFID stickers, but only 65,473 owners have obtained them. The remaining stickers have not yet been able to be handed over to the vehicle owners, due to border closures, said Wee.
On public bus services between Singapore and Malaysia, Singapore Transport Minister S. Iswaran said the bus operators will need some time to ramp up the bus services as the connection between two countries has been "largely underutilised" for the past two years.
Meanwhile, the train service linking Singapore and Johor has yet to resume as well.
Iswaran said that Singapore's Ministry of Transport and Land Transport Authority will work with public transport operators to prepare for the land border reopening between Singapore and Malaysia.
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