Road Tax & the petrol rebates...

Mon 020209

Deadline : 31st Mar 2009...Yup, that would be the last day for any car owner to claim his eligible rebate for petrol since the enormous jump in petrol prices sometime (June 2008??) last year.

And yup, yours truly here thought it would be a good idea to renew our car road tax ( vehicle licence actually...as it is officially called!) a month earlier to avoid the usual last minute rush typical of fellow Malaysians.

And so it was that me & my other half woke up earlier than usual and after a simple breakfast, we were off to renew our ole junk's insurance. The First Step. Well, renewal wasn't a hassle at all. Done in a matter of minutes. Thanks a meg, Ms L, for yr kind assistance!

However, a little background on the renewal of insurance for OLD cars here...

It seems that if one were to try to purchase 3rd party insurance cover for an old car (previously done for cars 10 years old & above), it would be almost nigh impossible! In reality there is still such a cover & the premium is only RM82.90! But, it appears that practically almost all insurance companies & agents would not accept such proposals anymore. Reason? A big loss should there be any claims, considering the very low premium. As such, those insurance companies that do accept, would add a compulsory requirement, namely the purchase of PA (Personal Accident) cover for the driver & passengers. This would add a further premium of RM310 in my case! Total? RM392.90, not forgetting the RM10 extra for stamp duty.

Now, if one would opt for Comprehensive type cover of the minimum sum insured of RM10k, the premium is only slightly more than RM200. So, which would you choose?

In my case, I was kinda lucky as I was permitted a renewal under my old policy terms. Yup, it's an offer me couldn't reject...hehe...

So, after getting the insurance cover, I was informed that I could renew my Road Tax and simultaneously apply for the petrol rebate at the GPO (General Post Office). That means a saving of 1 trip to JPJ as well as not having to fork out cash for the Road Tax renewal (RM90 only in my case). A kinda contra thing.

We, therefore, proceeded to the GPO and... My! What a huge crowd there was! My service ticket no. was 225 and only 162 was being served at the time! We decided to wait cos we saw so many counters were in operation. Told ourselves that a little patience would be well rewarded.

And so we waited...and waited...and waited. A long wait...at least it felt that way. Thank God the numbers moved pretty fast...thanks to all those who took numbers but discarded them or didn't stay when they saw the long queue!! So, surprisingly, after about 30 minutes, it was the turn for no. 225! Me!!!

At the designated counter, I diligently produced my documents...including the required application form for the petrol rebate. To my surprise, I was told that I could NOT do the Road Tax renewal! Reason? The section for printing the renewal printout on my Vehicle Licence were all used up! They could NOT print on the spare printout area which had been used for my past 4 years of renewals, saying that only the JPJ ppl could do that! And one just had to turn the vehicle licence bottom end up to print. That's all!

Now, can a machine printing out the receipt of payment onto the Vehicle Licence detect & know where it is printing? Could someone please enlighten me? AFAIK, there are NO magnetic markers on that form. So it would just be a matter of selecting the location, eg the row no., for the printout. Is the staff so inefficient as that? Moreover, how can the Govt publicly declare that Road Tax renewals can be performed at Post Offices when such a limitation is there? This limitation would restrict renewals to a max of 12 years!

Wouldn't be simple plain courtesy of the Govt &/or the GPO to inform the public that it could only accomodate renewals for vehicles that were only 12 years old and below?

When I told the GPO counter staff that I had queued for so long to be told I could not do so, she asked if I had shown my vehicle licence to the "Enquiry" counter staff. I did ask if I could renew my Road Tax but no one asked to see my vehicle licence nor told me of that restriction! Phew! And that is supposedly to be the "improved quality counter services" at govt departments? Oh my God! What a BS service! More of paying lip service than true service...

Being so rejected, what other recourse do I have but to then go personally to the nearest JPJ office. I did. And, guess what? It just took a couple of minutes to have my Road Tax renewed! No queue. No questions asked. No hassle at all!

The only problem now (which is actually NOT a problem at all...hehe...) is that I need to wait at least 4 days to a week (so I was told by the GPO staff) to be able to claim the petrol rebate. Why? There is a possibility that the updating of records by the GPO might not be as efficient as it should be!

Frankly, how slow can that be? Aren't they computerised & online? If so, that would just be as instant as pressing the "ENTER" key! Or a simple updating procedure. Daily even. If my knowledge of computers isn't as backward as some people...

The only reason that I could furnish on their behalf is that the 2 agencies are NOT online and therefore, there is a need for MANUAL updating of records from one agency to the other. Then it would depend on the frequency & efficiency of the staff empowered to do the updating. I rest my case...

So, have you renewed your vehicle Road Tax yet? Claimed your entitled rebate yet? If not, pls don't think that 31st Mar is still far away lo...it's not!

If you have done so, I do sincerely hope that your attempt was much more pleasant than mine, though...

Now I do wonder if there is anybody whose Road tax renewal is due on 310309...how in the world is he/she gonna claim the rebate? If the rebates end on 310309. Any idea? Maybe they are expected to renew at least a week earlier? RM625 is no meagre sum to most. Agreed?

Will update my progress on this issue for the final step when done...most probably next week...if me lucky streak comes back...

Have a good week!