Local News

The transport ministry has warned those with illegal driving licences that they only have two more weeks to surrender their licences to the integrity unit of the road transport department (JPJ) or face action. According to transport minister Anthony Loke, there would be no possibility of evasion because the JPJ has detailed information on their identities, Bernama reports. “There will be a meeting on Monday with JPJ at JPJ headquarters and among the issues to be discussed include the total number of illegal driving licence holders who had surrendered. We have reminded all such licence holders or buyers to return them to JPJ within a month and now there is only two weeks left before we start taking action against them,” he said. In September, Loke said that the ministry had identified 14,000 lesen terbang licences issued by renegade JPJ personnel over the past two years. The majority of the illegal driving licence holders are Malaysians, but there are also foreigners who … [Read more...] about Transport ministry says those with illegal driving licences only have two more weeks to surrender them

The government has announced that the sales and service tax (SST) rate for pneumatic tyres and electric motorcycles has been reduced to 5% from the 10% that was previously set for both categories, Bernama reports. According to finance minister Lim Guan Eng, the decision to reduce the SST rate for the two categories was made by the finance ministry together with the customs department following feedback gained through 18 briefing and Q&A sessions held nationwide, involving over 15,000 participants. Previous news reports from last month indicated that a price hike for motor vehicle tyres (passenger car, light trucks, vans etc) was on the cards following the reintroduction of SST, with a number of tyre companies – including Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Continental and Hankook – announcing that there would be an expected increase as of September 1 when SST kicked in. The move to reduce the SST rate to 5% should translate to another repricing exercise by tyre companies … [Read more...] about SST: Pneumatic tyres, electric motorbikes down to 5%

The ministry of domestic trade and consumer affairs (KPDNHEP) has announced the price of RON 97 for the month of October, and there’s not so cheery news for users of the fuel, because it will be priced at RM2.79 for the month. This represents a 14 sen increase from the RM2.65 per litre consumers had to pay for it from September 1-30. The new price will come into effect from midnight tonight and remain in place until October 31, which is when the next monthly RON 97 fuel price announcement will be made. Meanwhile, the price for RON 95 and diesel remain unchanged as they have been since May 30 – RON 95 continues to be priced at RM2.20 per litre and Euro 2M diesel at RM2.18 per litre, while Euro 5 diesel is priced at RM2.28 per litre at the pump. These prices will remain fixed indefinitely. … [Read more...] about RON 97 petrol price up 14 sen for Oct 2018 – RM2.79

Last month, Touch ‘n Go announced that it had discontinued sales of SmartTAG devices through its channels as part of its progressive switch towards the new radio-frequency identification (RFID) system for toll collection. While the RFID system – which is currently undergoing a public pilot programme – will be launched in January next year, the SmartTAG system will remain in operation, and still has plenty of users. In light of this, Efkon Asia, the Austrian technology provider of the infra-red (IR)-based ETC system, has assured the more than four million users in the country that the company will continue to provide sales and service support for the on-board unit, which was originally designed and developed as an extension of the Touch ‘n Go system. The company says that it will introduce its own IR TAG device (which resembles the last version of the SmartTAG unit), and plans to have in place a nationwide sales and service network for the unit by October. It … [Read more...] about EFKON to continue sales and service support of SmartTAG

Shell Malaysia has launched its Made for Malaysia range of engine lubricants today with a new label denoting ‘Untuk Pasaran Malaysia‘ (for the Malaysian market), which applies to five of its best-selling Shell Helix products and which will reveal a QR code for product authentication. These are Shell Helix Ultra 5W-40 fully synthetic (4L), Shell Helix HX7 10W-40 semi-synthetic (4L), Shell Helix HX7 5W-30 semi-synthetic (4L), Shell Helix HX5 10W-30 semi-synthetic (4L) and Shell Helix HX5 15W-40 semi-synthetic (4L). The five Shell Helix products here are blended and packed at Shell’s Lubricant Oil Blending Plant in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. The challenge faced by oil companies is the proliferation of unofficial lubricant products meant for other markets – in a way similar to grey import vehicles – which may be sold in supermarkets and some workshops, as well as outright counterfeit products; Shell’s latest product move aims to mitigate the … [Read more...] about Shell Malaysia launches Made For Malaysia label for Helix lube range