Owners of motorcycles and vehicles with expired road tax of not more than three years may renew them without having to fulfill the stipulated conditions through a special programme, effective today until the end of June.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the programme being implemented by the Road Transport Department for the first time was well received by insurance companies.

“I advise such vehicle owners to seize the opportunity to renew their road tax and insurance within the next three months.

“This programme shows the government's concern in helping the people, particularly those in the B40 group,” he told a press conference after officiating a Transport Ministry carnival in Bentong today.

Liow said the vehicle owners would also enjoy insurance rebate if they renew the documents within the period.

“For 125cc motorcycles, the owners will only have to pay RM80 compared to the normal rate of between RM100 and RM140,” he said.

Liow explained that in normal procedures, vehicles with lapsed road tax of more than one year needed to go through inspection at the Computerised Vehicle Inspection Centre (Puspakom) before being approved for road tax renewal.

Meanwhile, the department’s director-general Shaharuddin Khalid said an estimated 28 million vehicles had been registered in Malaysia but in 2017, only 19 million had renewed the road tax.

In another development, Liow, who is also Bentong MP, said the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) scheduled for completion in 2024 would reduce travel time between Bentong and Kuala Lumpur from one hour to only 25 minutes.

He also said the 18km tunnel project across Bentong had begun.

- Bernama