Owners of seized luxury vehicles must first settle all dues, including road tax, insurance and saman, before they can get their cars back, transport minister Anthony Loke has said, according to a Bernama report.
On reports that some owners were willing to pay the (minimum) RM300 fine as it was cheaper than the annual road tax, Loke said: “Vehicles that are seized due to expired road tax and insurance will only be released after all payments are settled. This includes road tax, insurance coverage and compound fines. There are no shortcuts,” adding that many owners wrongly assume that paying the RM300 fine is enough.
Will the fine be hiked? Loke replied that the ministry is reviewing the proposal and that any increase would require amendments to existing legislation.
The road transport department (JPJ) has reportedly identified over 1,000 luxury vehicles in Malaysia with long-expired road tax, some of which are apparently owned by celebrities and prominent business figures who claim the cars are only used as ‘weekend cars’. ‘Lupa‘ (I forgot) is another excuse, also popular with some caught not wearing seat belts.
JPJ’s recent Ops Luxury and Ops Luxury 2.0 crackdowns have seized at least 150 such cars, including 10 by the Negeri Sembilan chapter. A few days ago, a senior lawyer was reported as saying that he was told that it was cheaper to pay a maximum RM3,000 fine for not having the required documents compared to paying thousands for a luxury car’s road tax and insurance.
“The orang kena saman explained that it was better to pay the (at minimum) RM300 fine, as it was cheaper and more worthwhile compared to paying over RM5,000 for road tax and more than RM10,000 for insurance for his continental car. If he just continues driving without road tax and insurance and gets fined, the maximum is only RM3,000. It’s more worth it,” he told Berita Harian.
“If he were to get into an accident and hit a member of the public while having no vehicle insurance coverage, the victim or their family would not be able to make any claims. In the end, they would have to bear all court and medical costs themselves.
“Legal costs can reach up to RM10,000 to RM40,000, excluding medical and other court costs. In fact, even if they win the case, there’s no guarantee they will receive the compensation money,” he added.
JPJ’s Ops Luxury and Ops Luxury 2.0
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