Thousands of vehicles drive into Singapore from West Malaysia every day, but foreigners who have blown off parking and traffic tickets received while in the city-state should be ready to pay their unpaid fines if they hope to cruise into the Lion City once more.
On Monday, Singapore’s Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) began enforcing the regulation barring entry to foreign vehicles with outstanding fines for traffic, parking or vehicular emissions violations. The regulation was first announced in February to socialize it among drivers so that they had time to pay up before enforcement began.
According to a media release from ICA, as of 8am yesterday, 50 foreign vehicles had been turned away from entering Singapore at its two land checkpoints in Tuas and Woodlands.
The release said ICA planned ahead for the initiative and that clearance times for incoming vehicles at their checkpoints had “not been affected due to the turning away of these foreign vehicles with outstanding fines. All vehicles to be turned away are diverted to separate parking spaces to be processed, and as such it does not affect the flow of other traffic.”
However, Malaysian news outlet The Star Online reported that the regulation caused long queues on the Causeway and Tuas Second Link as some drivers stopped to pay their fines while others were forced to turn around.
While commuters coming into Singapore may hope that the problem will resolve itself quickly after the first few days, the government claims that foreign vehicles collectively still have S$32 million (US$23.6 million) in unpaid fines, which means there are probably plenty more foreign vehicles that have to pay up or turn around before the lines at the checkpoints return to normal.
