41,000 Of Nearly 50,000 Summonses Issued to Foreign Vehicles Still Unpaid, Says JSPT

Between 2022 and November 2024, Malaysian authorities issued 49,598 traffic summonses to foreign-registered vehicles, amounting to millions of ringgit of owed to law enforcement of those two years alone.

Shockingly, though unsurprisingly, 41,005 of these still remains unpaid according to Datuk Mohd Yusri Hassan, director of the city traffic enforcement and investigation department (JSPT), as reported by the New Straits Times.

Also predictable is the fact that the large majority of these foreign vehicles are registered to countries that neighbour our own. Singaporean vehicles, as an example, accounted for the highest number of unpaid summonses with 28,642 out of 33,033 issued, despite the country possessing the lowest numbest of cars by far.

This was followed by Thailand (6,589 unpaid out of 7,725), Brunei (3,721 out of 5,917), Indonesia (585 out of 772), and other countries (1,468 out of 2,151). In 2023 alone, only 8,593 summonses involving foreign vehicles were settled.

The most common traffic offence was speeding, with 33,226 summonses issued. Other violations included failure to obey traffic signals (4,576 cases), traffic obstruction (3,514), queue-jumping (2,022), and other offences (8,370).

Now, to tackle this issue, authorities had conducted 14 separate ‘Operasi Saman Tertunggak Warganegara Asing’ between the year of 2014 to 2024, mostly held in states bordering Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, and Indonesia - six operations in Johor, four in Perlis, Kedah, and Perak, two in Kelantan, and one each in Sarawak and Sabah. Payment counters were also set up at roadblocks to facilitate on-the-spot settlements.

In addition to in-person, over-the-counter payments, summonses can be settled via the MyBayar PDRM portal and application for iOS and Android, which was launched in 2021 and can be used by both Malaysians and foreigners.

Considering how many summonses remain unpaid despite the various operations, it appears foreign vehicle owners still take a lax attitude when it comes to settling up with authorities. Clearly, more severe consequences and enforcement need to be implemented, but we will need to wait and see what comes of this information coming from the JSPT.