Ever since the Malaysia-Singapore causeway opened on April 1, there have been a few photos of Singaporean vehicles performing amusing antics while refuelling at Malaysian fuel stations.
But this one in particular was a little different – it showed a Singaporean-registered Toyota Estima being refuelled with a yellow nozzle, which at this particular fuel brand indicates RON95 fuel.
Foreign-registered vehicles are actually not allowed to buy RON95 in Malaysia. This rule was put into place on August 1, 2010. This is because of the higher tax-funded subsidises provided for RON95 users, which are meant to go to Malaysian motorists only. So cars like this Singaporean-registered Toyota Estima can refuel in Malaysia but they are supposed to be buying RON97 or RON100 only.
RON95 is currently priced at RM2.05 a litre in Malaysia, significantly cheaper than RON97’s RM3.91 a litre price. As a comparison, 95 currently goes for around SG$3 (RM9.31) a liter in Singapore, while 98 goes for SG$3.47 (RM10.77) a litre.
Other than the no RON95 rule, there are other measures in place to discourage Singaporean cars from refuelling with subsidised fuel in Malaysia. There is a Three-Quarter Tank Rule, where under the Customs Act 1960 of Singapore, a car leaving the island state must have a minimum of three quarters of the tank full.
The three-quarter tank rule has a fine of SG$500. It’s not really known what is the ‘punishment’ for a Singaporean vehicle buying RON95 fuel in Malaysia. There was hoo-ha back in 2019 where a BMW 5-Series was similarly caught in the act, but as far as we could tell, no action was taken against the driver.
The post Can Singaporean cars buy RON95 in Malaysia? appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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