PUTRAJAYA: The Cabinet today agreed to standardise the road tax fee for registered commercial goods vehicles in Sabah and Sarawak using the kerb weight (BTM) criteria.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke said such vehicles in Sabah would pay lower and same road tax fee as those in Sarawak effective April 1.
He said currently the road tax fee paid by commercial goods vehicle operators in Sabah was based on the gross vehicle weight criteria (BDM), which was very high.
“For instance, operators in Sabah with a diesel prime mover container lorry have to pay RM2,478 in road tax a year compared to those in Sarawak who only have to pay RM718 for the same weight vehicle,” he said after chairing the ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting.
Loke said the move would certainly reduce the government’s revenue by RM9 million to RM15 million a year.
“But this will not drastically impact the Road Transport Department collection as the revenue from these two states only constitute 2.6 per cent of road tax revenue.”
There were 122,905 registered commercial vehicles in Sabah last year with road tax collection worth RM24,350,252.90.
In Sarawak, there were 108,766 such vehicles with collection worth RM18,745,121.40.
The minister said the move could also address leakages of revenue estimated about RM64 million based on data collected between 2009 and 2014.
Loke cited the leakages included those who owned commercial goods vehicles in Sabah renewing their road taxes in Sarawak.