In February, transport minister Anthony Loke announced that Malaysia was transitioning to a digital system for its road tax (LKM, or lesen kenderaan motor) and driving license, making it no longer mandatory to have a physical copy of these

Since then, nearly three million users have downloaded the road transport department’s MyJPJ application, according to JPJ director-general Datuk Zailani Hashim. The app is necessary to access the digital versions of the road tax and driving licence.

“So far, a total of 2.971 million users have signed up, and we hope that by the middle of this year, the number will increase to make matters easier,” he said. He added that the department is in the process of adding features to the app, including that for renewals to be made via the platform.

“Currently, we only have the display (function on the app) because the renewals of licences and road taxes (functions) will only begin in the middle of this year. We are now only having the display feature to allow the public to familiarise themselves with MyJPJ digital platform,” he explained.

With regards to potential hiccups such as the possibility of a person not having any mobile Internet data or coverage on their smartphones or a phone battery going dead during an enforcement check, Zailani said that none of these scenarios would prove to be an issue, as the New Straits Times reports.

He said the department would be able to work around such matters as its personnel would be utilising a tool called the Smart Management Enforcement Device (SMED), which can display whether a person’s licence or road tax is still active or needs to be renewed. “A person would only need to provide his or her MyKad, and the SMED can display their relevant information,” he said.