I refer to the letter Why are we subsidising Singapore cars? and S'pore dollars fueling JB .

As a Singaporean, I would like to further explain why there is not much incentive to drive a Singapore car to Johor purely to get 'subsidised' petrol.

The tampered fuel gauge was rampant in the early days when the 3/4 full tank rule was implemented. During those days, every Johor-bound Singapore car at the checkpoint will have to wind down their windows so the Singapore customs officers could take a look at your fuel gauge to ensure you have a 3/4 full tank. This was a manual way of checking hence the idea of the tampered fuel gauge was born.

Nowadays, Singapore uses a new X-ray-like technology to check whether all outgoing Singapore cars have three-quarter full tank. Winding down your car window is not necessary anymore thanks to this new technology. Instead, you see two customs officers looking at a computer screen as each car passes by. There is some sort of x-ray sensor which can 'see' the approximate level of fuel in our cars. Also note that the fine for flouting the three-quarter tank ruling in S$1,000 (RM2,200).

I agree with Norman Fernandez that because of the causeway jam, it doesn't make much economic sense for Singaporeans to waste few hours just to get a quarter tank of subsidised petrol. Yes, some Singaporeans still do this, but I can assure you they are a minority.

More importantly, due to the high increase in crime in JB and Malaysia over the past few years, Singaporeans are further discouraged from visiting JB. Would you want to waste time and put yourself at a risk to criminals just to get a quarter tank of subsidised petrol? Not to mention the Singapore fine if you get caught at the border? It is not worth it.

But why is Ahmad Jusoh is still seeing Singapore cars with nearly empty tanks filling up in JB? The most likely reason is they have gone on a short trip (usually two to three days) driving all the way to Malacca, KL and sometimes even all the way to Penang. On the way back, usually the practise is to have a full top up at JB before heading back to Singapore.

If you compare Singapore cars and Thailand cars entering Malaysia purely for filling up their fuel tanks, I would say there will be more cars from your northern neighbour doing this because I do not know of any restriction by Thai government to deter their people from getting subsidised petrol in Malaysia.

So the Thai motorist's incentive to cross the border to get Malaysian subsidied petrol versus his time and effort is well justified.

Ahmad Jusoh, being a Malaysian, does have his valid reasons for his unhappiness in this case (the Thai cars) because after all it's Malaysia that's subsidising the petrol. In this instance, only the Malaysian government can do something about it.