Up to 74,000 renewal permits for operating taxis, buses and lorries are being readied for distribution from April 1, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Ahmad Maslan said the permits can be claimed at the four regional offices of the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad), which took over the permit renewal on Jan 31.

“This is a mechanism to monitor the operators of public transportation and commercial vehicles to raise the quality of service,” he said when replying to Dr Mohd Hatta Md Ramli (PAS-Kuala Krai).

The opposition MP had wanted to know why the renewal of taxi permits is done every year compared to 10 years previously and whether SPAD has the ability to manage the permit renewal at its offices.

Ahmad said the maximum renewal period for a permit is seven years, and the applicants can opt to renew for a period of three, five or seven years.

For the record, there are more than 90,000 operators of public transportation in the country who run more than 300,000 vehicles.

Replying to a supplementary question, also from Dr Mohd Hatta, on when the conversion of permits from company to individual would take place and for how long, Ahmad said the government had issued the relevant permits for companies and individuals.

He said the government cannot withdraw the permits unless the recipients violated the stipulated conditions.

- Bernama