At today’s ‘Child Safety Technical Workshop’ by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) and Autoliv Hirotako Safety, transport minister Anthony Loke reiterated his ministry is aiming to make child seats more affordable before their use becomes mandatory in 2020.
According to Loke, talks are currently ongoing with the finance ministry and Royal Malaysian Customs Department to apply for child seats to be exempted from the sales and services tax (SST) and import duties. The minister is hoping that the latter currently applicable on child seats will be waived by the end of this year.
Malaysia has been a member of the United Nation’s World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations (WP29) since April 4, 2006. Among the gazetted regulations is United Nations Regulation 44 (UN R44) – ‘uniform provisions concerning the approval of restraining devices for child occupants of power-driven vehicles (child restraint systems)’.
Previously, the ruling on the mandatory use of child seats was supposed to be introduced in 2019, but was postponed indefinitely as it was the announcement made by the previous government. It was only in October last year that Loke confirmed that child seat usage would be made mandatory by 2020.
