Sibu motorists have mixed feelings on new move to digitalise road tax stickers

Private vehicles will no longer need to display road tax stickers from Feb 10 onward.

SIBU, Feb 10: Motorists here have mixed opinions on the move by the Ministry of Transport to remove the need to affix the road tax stickers for private vehicle owners from Friday (Feb 10).

One motorist, Albert Tay, prefers the stickers instead of the digital version of vehicular road tax.

“Many more problems will emerge with the digital road tax. The problem starts with the police stopping your car for road tax checking. No sticker means he needs to check your digital road tax on your phone. But with a sticker, he can have a quick look to see if your road tax is still valid,” said Tay.

For stolen cars however, he said the new method would work well.

“Thieves driving stolen cars will have difficulty when they are driving on the road and get stopped by the police. No digital road tax means driving without the permission of the owner,’ he opined.

An educationist who only wanted to know by Ting said the new system suits her well, but not others.

“The system might not be user-friendly to certain users like the illiterate and the elderly, or those without smartphones. I might be wrong as I am not sure how the system actually works as it is still something new,” said Ting.

Another motorist, Peter Tang, is against the new initiative.

“Traffic policemen will have an extra burden as they need to use our phones to check on the road tax. Most countries are still using the sticker road tax, why can’t we continue using it?” he questioned.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke said that with a digital road tax, vehicle owners can do away with the display of road tax stickers, as is currently required by law.

The Transport Minister further said that the digitalisation of motor vehicle road tax stickers (LKM) and Malaysian driving licences (LMM) will be the solution to the constant complaints of vehicle owners and drivers. — DayakDaily