Malaysian taxis must pay 7 times more to enter Singapore starting 2027

Malaysia-registered taxis entering Singapore must pay S$15 (US$12) per trip from Jan. 1, 2027, as the city-state moves to narrow a wide cost gap with its own cabs, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on June 25.

For a permit that has cost a token S$2 a month for more than three decades, the jump is steep. A single crossing will soon cost more than Malaysian cabbies have paid for a whole month of access, the LTA told CNA.

Behind the increase is one of the widest car-cost gaps in the world.

Singapore tops the cars category of Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer's Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report, which has ranked the city the world's most expensive for the wealthy three years running.

The reason is policy. A Certificate of Entitlement, the bid-for license needed to put any car on the road, can exceed S$100,000 before the vehicle itself is paid for, on top of a steep Additional Registration Fee.

The Land Transport Authority named both, along with fuel prices and the exchange rate, as the forces pushing Singapore operators' costs far above their Malaysian counterparts'.

The gap is plain in what drivers pay just to put a cab on the road. A Malaysia-registered taxi rents for RM30 to RM50 (US$7 to US$12) a day, against S$100 to S$130 for a Singapore cab, cross-border driver Haniff Mahbob told The Straits Times.

Because drivers on both sides earn the same regulated fare, Malaysian operators will likely stay ahead even once the new fee takes hold.

Only Malaysia-registered taxis holding both a Public Service Vehicle Licence and an ASEAN Public Service Vehicle Permit, the permit whose fee is rising, may legally run the cross-border routes.

The LTA said it chose a per-trip charge over a higher monthly one because it tracks actual use and would let operators pass the cost on more cleanly if they choose. It does not set cross-border fares, it added, leaving any decision to charge passengers to the operators.

The fee is the latest in a run of changes to a service Singaporeans lean on for weekend runs to Johor Bahru.

An overhaul on May 4 let cross-border taxis drop passengers anywhere in Singapore and across Johor, rather than only at fixed terminals, and added pick-up points on both sides.

Fares rose at the same time. A four-seater run from Ban San Street Terminal in Bugis to Larkin Sentral in Johor Bahru, up to 35 km, now costs S$80, up from S$60, while the return leg within 35 km is set at RM240 (about S$75), up from RM120, The Straits Times reported.

The quota of licensed cross-border taxis each side may run is also climbing from 200 to 500.

Mohd Suhaimi Saidi, who chairs the Johor Bahru-Singapore Cross-Border Taxi Association in Malaysia, said the S$15 fee was manageable since drivers rarely make more than one Singapore run a day, though he had hoped for a smaller rise.

Much of the rework is aimed at pulling riders away from illegal operators, which both governments have been chasing.

The LTA said it would keep acting against unlicensed point-to-point services, warning that such cars carry no proper insurance and can leave passengers with no recourse after a crash.