For years now, Malaysian drivers have been confronted with the dread that comes with attempting to remove their road tax stickers from their packaging, and reapplying it to their windshield in a single, intact piece.
Fragile to a fault, many would probably have experienced the heart-racing minutes of intense focus that comes from peeling the sticker off without tearing any of its sides, only to have your efforts foiled when it catches and rips on its own accord.
Vehicles privately-owned by Malaysians no longer have to display road tax stickers
Last week, Transport Minister YB Anthony Loke has taken direct aim at criticisms lobbied against the lackluster quality of road tax stickers and made good on his promise made back in 2022 to improve them.
Declaring that vehicles privately-owned by Malaysians will no longer require to visibly display their road tax, he adds that driers will now only need to register on the MyJPJ mobile application to obtain a digital copy of their road tax that will act as a replacement for the much-maligned stickers. Additionally, Section 20 of the Road Transport Act that requires private vehicle owners to affix and visibly display their road tax stickers will no longer be enforced.
With that said, many Malaysians have still raised their doubts about substituting physical road tax stickers with digital copies, especially when driving through roadblocks mounted by enforcement officers.
Local netizen shows how MyJPJ Digital Road Tax works in the event of a roadblock
Well one netizen decided to put that to the test after doing exactly that. In a clip that was uploaded to his TikTok account, user namasayahaziq_ explains that he and his friend went out in search of a JPJ roadblock after removing the road tax sticker from their car to determine what the process would be like in using the digital iteration.
Showing that they still had their physical road tax stashed in the glovebox, they then drove up next to the officers before showing them their Digital Road Tax from MyJPJ on a smartphone.
Appearing impressed that the technology has been adopted so swiftly, the officer on duty proceeds to check through his vehicle’s details without much incident before asking a colleague to take a look as the video cuts out.
The video has since been viewed 1.1 million times since it was uploaded 3 days ago. With that said, netizens were still skeptical about using the Digital Road Tax as a substitute, especially in instances when driving a car belonging to somebody else.
“If someone else is driving our car, how do they show the road tax?”
“Physical road taxes are still easier. My opinion.”
Others ask why JPJ officers don’t have a means to cross-reference vehicle details using number plates.
“Didn’t they say they have some high-tech way of checking car number plates? Why do they still need to check your phone?”
“You should ask them to use their own system to check. If they have to look at your phone, that takes more time.”
With that said, the new ruling doesn’t mean that you need to remove your physical road tax stickers. You may in fact still keep them on your car if you wish!
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