This was after e-mails sent to Malaysian authorities on the matter yielded very little information.

In a letter to the editor at the Straits Times, an irate Singaporean said many Singaporean drivers have applied and paid for the VEP tag but to date, they have not received the tag nor have they received any information as to where to collect it.

“The many e-mails to the Malaysian authorities have yielded little. In fact, their last response to me is that one can enter without the VEP tag, the reader said.

“But the more common response one gets is ‘the system is under maintenance’. How can a system that was never implemented be under maintenance?”

The reader noted that the programme seems to be in a shambles before it has even started and questioned where did all the money collected from Singaporeans go.

“And why isn’t Singapore protesting?” the reader asked.

In an earlier report, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai had said that the Road Transport Department (JPJ) was in the final stages of synchronising its system with that of the Singapore’s Ministry of Transport, gearing up for formal implementation of the VEP at the two Johor land links with Singapore.

Liow had said that, so far, at least 200,365 Singapore-based vehicle owners have registered online ahead of the VEP’s full implementation.

The VEP charges will be paid via a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag. The tag is a sticker with a barcode that should be displayed on the windshield of the vehicle, Liow had said.

Singapore had labelled the road charge scheme as “discriminatory”, with the republic’s Ministry of Transport saying it is biased against Singapore-registered vehicles as the fee is applied only at Malaysia’s checkpoints with Singapore.