National Automotive Policy may be reviewed: Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is prepared to review the new regulations under the National Automotive Policy (NAP) if it gives negative impact on Malaysians, said Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.He wanted the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to prepare a report if there were dissatisfaction caused by the implementation of the new regulation requiring passenger cars that were more than 15 years old to undergo annual inspection at the Puspakom before the road tax could be renewed effective Jan 1, next year.

“I want the agency responsible on the matter to submit a report to the government, probably there are people who are not happy because their vehicles would be tested after a certain period, but the move is not to cause hardship but for safety reasons,” he told reporters at a media conference, here yesterday.

Muhyiddin had earlier opened the ‘Asia-Pacific Aquaculture And Malaysian International Seafood Exposition 2009’ at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).

He said the government was always willing to listen to reasons why the new regulation could impose hardship on the people.

“They must submit cases why they will face hardship in fulfilling the requirement…what hardship, we will listen if there is any basis for us to grant an exemption, that we have to scrutinise, possibly there are people who have owned cars for a long time and cannot afford to pay for the cost of inspection and so on,” Muhyiddin said.

The new regulation will involve about one million passenger vehicles and is reported to cause hardship to the lower income group and will affect the used car industry.

— Bernama