LETTERS: On the issue of the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP), mass registrations started in April 2019 in Singapore when the Malaysian Transport Ministry set a deadline of Oct 1, 2019, which pushed thousands of Singaporeans to apply.
In May 2024, the ministry made the same announcement on renewal and new registration requests, creating an unnecessary workload for the VEP team.
My suggestion is to give expired VEP holders a one-year grace period to renew, so the VEP team can focus on handling new applications.
Previously registered VEP holders have valid RFIDs (Radio-frequency identification), and even after the VEP expires, the Touch 'n Go e-wallet is still linked to the RFID and works at the checkpoint.
The renewal process requires deregistration by staff in the system's back-end. Why is this needed for a renewal request? This should be made clear in the renewal notification.
I submitted a renewal request in May 2024, again in June, and was only deregistered this month. The minister's tough comments only led to a flood of unnecessary queries to the VEP email system.
Also, many Malaysians working in Singapore have bought Singapore-registered cars. This VEP situation affects many Malaysians as well.
There should also be a service ticketing number assigned for email inquiries, so applicants do not send multiple emails for the same query, artificially inflating the number of requests.
This might explain why the team managing email feedback takes months to respond.
There is also some confusion in understanding certain terminology. In the renewal notice I received, it asked for a 'COE document'. What is a COE document?
I provided the vehicle registration details but still don't know if this is what was required.
Unclear terminology like this will result in additional hours lost for both applicants and staff.
I hope the relevant authorities can look into this to ensure the system works effectively in the long run.
BRIAN LIN
Singapore
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times