Under Transport Minister Datuk Hishammuddin’s instruction, a two day workshop involving more than 100 stakeholders in the transport ministry was conducted in early June to review the existing rules on car tint.
The workshop had recommended that the existing minimum visible light transmission for a vehicle’s rear windshield and passenger windows be reduced to 30 % from the existing 50%.
However till today, no decision has been made by the Transport Minister.
The delay has caused problems to new car owners as they are not sure if they should have their cars tinted now. As a result, the business of car accessories shop has been affected.
Why can’t Hishammuddin make a quick a decision on the issue? If he has to gather more feedback, he ought to quickly do so and then make a decision.
Is he leaving the problem to be resolved by the new transport minister, with news that a Cabinet reshuffle will soon happen?
I wish to remind Hishammuddin that he should also resolve the issue of old AES summonses before he relinquishes his position as the acting transport minister.
It has been more than 9 months since he talked about wanting to resolve the question of old AES summonses — those issued before September 18, 2013.
The issue has been passed from the Attorney General Chambers to the Cabinet and then the Economic Council. And there is still no answer. Surely finding a solution to this issue cannot be as tough as finding the missing MH370.
In September last year, Hishammuddin was reported to say that that the status of the old summonses would be decided by the Attorney General’s Chambers on the possibility of a write off.
A month later, he said the Transport Ministry would outline several options to the Cabinet to determine the status of the summonses.
He said among the options was to write off the summonses or to offer discounts.
On November 18, he said his Ministry hoped to table the problem of the old summonses to the Economic Council chaired by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak by the following week.
No solution or decision has been subsequently announced.
According to a written parliamentary reply given to Segambut Member of Parliament Lim Lip Eng on July 17 last year, it was revealed that a total of 673,339 summonses were issued to 628,045 motorists for speeding and 45,294 for running the red light. Summonses worth more than RM20 million had been collected.
The old summonses should have totaled about 680,000 by September 2013.
I wish to repeat my call on the government to write off the unsettled AES summonses worth more than RM 204 million and to refund the collection totaling more than RM 20 million because in addition to the legal issue which had caused the authority to halt court prosecution, there was a lack of publicity to inform the public, neither were there adequate and large signboards erected at camera locations to warn approaching motorists when the AES was implemented in September 2012.