BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) is asking driving schools to absorb the six per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) to help ease the burden of people taking driving tests.
JPJ director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad said driving institutes were called to undertake the tax as a corporate social responsibility to help their customers.
"Driving licence and road tax are not imposed with GST, only the services provided by the driving institutes are taxed...so I am urging them to emulate the move by several hypermarkets such as Mydin to help their customers.
"I hope the 205 driving institutes in the country would heed the call to absorb the tax for the benefit of their customers," he told reporters after visiting the Melati Driving Institute at Bukit Tengah here today.
Meanwhile, Ismail said JPJ was in the final phase to provide driving test guidebooks in Mandarin and Tamil.
He said apart from guidebooks, Part 1 questions (computerised test) would also be available in Mandarin and Tamil to facilitate candidates especially senior citizens who are not fluent in Malay and English.
"It is expected to be ready before the end of this year and the test by then will be available in multiple languages," he said.
In another development, Ismail said JPJ was still monitoring all driving institutes to ensure they were not involved in Learner (L) licence syndicates to obtain the driving licence without having to sit for a computerised test which is popular among foreigners.
Ismail said he would not compromise with any of his officers or staff if they were found being involved in such syndicates which charged between RM2,000 and RM2,500 to obtain L licence without having to sit for the computerised test.
"JPJ will cooperate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to eradicate such syndicates and if any driving institutes were found involved, we will take the appropriate actions," he said.
Yesterday, it was reported in the press that foreigners were paying between RM2,000 and RM2,500 to obtain L licence for fear of failing the test due to language problems or they may be illiterate.
The payment would be handed to a driving school agent or computerised test operating company counter staff to arrange for an L licence to the foreigner.
