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.
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