An exercise in futility: lining up at JPJ

 

The transport minister was in the news last week when he spot-checked the Road Transport Department (JPJ) in Johor Bahru.

He said he was sad to see people wasting their time in long queues that snaked around the Taman Daya JPJ office waiting to print out documents.

In a Facebook post, the minister, Wee Ka Siong, said those in the queue told him they were unable to renew their driver’s licence at the Urban Transformation Centres and post offices, while some questioned the usefulness of the mySIKAP portal as they still needed to go to JPJ to print their documents even after performing the transactions online.

It’s a good time for the minister to make our lives easier. Since we’re paying taxes to the government, at least let us pay in comfort, whether online or in the JPJ office rather than penalise us by having to queue in the sun.

On this note, the ministry should realise that the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting MCO lockdowns caused a backlog of work.

When the civil service started to get back to regular work after 18 months of stop-start operations, political leaders should have hot-desked the frontliners such as the JPJ and Immigration Department to serve on a 7-day a week basis until backlogs were cleared.

On a longer-term basis, our government must strive for continuous improvement, perhaps benchmarking against our neighbours in Singapore and Indonesia.

One example is mySIKAP, a digital initiative introduced almost a decade ago which is good in many aspects but an exercise in futility regarding payment of road tax.

To use mySIKAP, you must verify your particulars in person at a JPJ office and then with your password you can perform many transactions including online payment of road tax. But what is the point if you must physically collect your road tax disc from the JPJ office.

Of course, the most convenient way is to buy your road tax by MyEg and this company will courier the road tax disc to your address with an efficiency that puts the JPJ and the post office to shame.

But the requirement for a printed road tax disc defeats the whole process of digitisation. The ministry and the civil servants should immediately jettison the baggage of print and paper processes and observe what’s going on in Indonesia, and the Commonwealth nations of Australia and Singapore.

None of them requires the display of annual road tax or vehicle licence fees on the windscreens.

In Indonesia, you keep your Surat Tanda Nombor Kenderaan (STNK) in your glovebox and it’s revalidated every five years with an online transaction. You also must pay a vehicle licence fee annually online; if you fail to pay, the tax office will remind you and there’s a 20% late payment fee. If after five years you don’t pay, you’ll have to pay the accrued licence fees and a hefty penalty to revalidate the STNK.

Indonesia’s digitalisation process in the automotive sector is significantly improving the lives of its citizens.

In Perth, Western Australia, if you are the owner of a WA licensed vehicle, you must renew the vehicle licence or return the number plates within three months of the licence expiry date.

If you do not renew the vehicle licence or return the plates within the prescribed period, you’ll be issued with a “Notice of Expired Vehicle Licence”. If you still don’t pay, you’ll be referred to the Fines Enforcement Registry for action.

Finally, we have the example of Singapore. There, not only is everything so digitalised, there is even a 24/7 self-service kiosk for posting letters worldwide, paying electric bills, and yes, road tax.

As for road tax discs, the Land Transport Authority did away with that some years ago to achieve true digitalisation.

So here are the takeaways for the transport ministry and the JPJ.

After almost 10 years, it’s time to refresh your digitalisation programme in partnership with a proven international standard software company with the objective of having a true paperless process and yet maintaining the integrity of law enforcement.

Allow a 20% discount on those who pay road taxes on time and impose a 20% penalty on late payers.

Formulate a road tax system for Electric Vehicles in the spirit of decarbonising. Currently, it is an archaic transcription from the tariff schedule for internal combustion engines and it doesn’t recognise the fuel efficiency of strong hybrids and plug-in battery-electric hybrids which are not so fuel efficient if they aren’t plugged in to charge when needed. This refers to owners who merely seek the tax benefits of PHEV’s rather than being green conscious. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.