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PETALING JAYA: The Road Transport Department (RTD) has chosen to remain mum over the growing frustration by vehicle owners seeking to renew their road tax.
Numerous vehicle owners had complained of being turned away when seeking to renew their road tax, purportedly due to a shortage of road tax stickers.
Since last month, motorists who went to RTD offices and its agencies, such as post offices, to renew their road tax were puzzled when they were told no renewals were possible as the department had run out of road tax stickers. However, no clarification on the matter had been forthcoming from either RTD’s top brass or their officers, leaving vehicle owners mystified by the silence.
Yesterday, numerous attempts to seek clarification from RTD by theSun were futile after its officers were either unreachable or did not respond to enquiries.
One officer said a statement will soon be issued on the matter but was unable to specify when.
“In the next few days, maybe two or three days,” the officer responded.
RTD in a statement on Feb 3, issued a response to news reports of the shortage, stating that its supply of road tax stickers was sufficient to fulfil the demand nationwide at its branches, post offices, Puspakom and via online service provider MyEG.
The department said that it had obtained a supply of around 1.14 million road tax stickers from its stockist in January, and another 420,000 in early February, to be equally distributed to its branches and agencies to ensure there was no shortage.
RTD had also given its assurance to motorists that they would not face any shortage of road tax stickers.
In a subsequent statement on Feb 15, also in response to a news report on a general insurance association lamenting on how badly its members were affected by the shortage of the stickers, RTD said motor vehicle owners were exempted from renewing their road tax due to the movement control order (MCO).
They added that motorists would only need to obtain motor insurance for their vehicles, which would be sufficient.
However, the department said the exemption was only until March 31, and motorists would have 30 days thereafter to obtain their road tax, which is until April 30, to display the road tax on their vehicles.
Despite assurance by RTD of having adequate supply of the stickers, vehicle owners continue to be turned away due to the shortage of stickers, especially at post offices.
