S'pore cars can't apply for VEP if COE is 6 months or less: M'sia transport minister

This rule prevents relatively older cars in Singapore from entering Malaysia.

July 21, 2025, 04:12 PM

Singapore-registered vehicles whose Certificate of Entitlement (COE) validity is six months or less will not be able to apply for a Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) to enter Malaysia.

Car owners will need to extend their COE if they wish to obtain a VEP, Malaysia transport minister Anthony Loke told Shin Min Daily News.

Why this rule?

The purpose of implementing such a rule, he said, is to avoid the illegal resale of Singapore cars in Malaysia, and the manufacture of "cloned cars" by reusing licence plates or identities of scrapped cars.

The rule is set by Malaysia's Road Transport Department.

Such a rule prevents a subset of car owners in Singapore, who drive relatively older cars, from entering Malaysia.

Avoiding car resales

Loke reportedly compared such a rule to the existing rule in international travel, whereby passports have to have a minimum of six months' validity before one is able to travel.

A COE, which comes with a 10-year validity for each newly-registered car, currently costs between S$101,102 and S$119,600 for a new COE, according to the Automobile Association of Singapore.

One car owner told Shin Min that she hopes that Singapore car owners would be shown leniency and be allowed to apply for a VEP even if the COE validity is less than six months.

VEP implementation

Since Jul. 1, Singapore vehicles entering Malaysia by road are required to have a valid VEP and an activated radio frequency identification (RFID) tag as proof.

The day after the new enforcement was announced on Jun. 4, long queues were seen at VEP registration centres in Singapore and Johor, according to The Straits Times.

Those caught in Malaysia without a VEP would be fined RM300 (S$91) and made to settle the penalty, as well as obtain and activate their VEP before leaving the country.

Within the first hour of the rule's implementation on Jul. 1, 10 Singaporeans were fined at the immigration checkpoint in Johor Bahru.

A number of vehicle owners were also issued a ticket for not activating the tag, despite already possessing one.