DENGKIL: The Subsidised Diesel Control System 2.0 (SKDS 2.0) for land transport, which starts tomorrow, will involve five oil companies and nine types of vehicles, said the Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali.

The nine vehicle types are general cargo lorries, bottled drinks lorries, refrigerated lorries, luton lorries, prime movers, flour tankers, water tankers and panelled window vans.

Armizan said the concerned vehicle operating company can submit an application through the KPDN MySubsidi Diesel system at the link https://mysubsidi.kpdn.gov.my/ from 9 am tomorrow.

He said that there are two levels of application, namely to KPDN for the purpose of authorisation and to the oil company for the issuance of the fleet card.

"Once approved, they can apply for the card from five oil companies of their choice, be it Petronas, Shell, Caltex, BHP or Petron," he said during a press conference when announcing the expansion of the SKDS 2.0 pilot project and opening the Kedai Kampung Fresh Market Sdn Bhd today.

Armizan said the application approval by the KPDN takes between one to two days, while the issuance of the fleet card by the oil companies is estimated to take two to four weeks.

"We hope that all companies will start applying tomorrow so that we can ensure that the Fleet Card can be used from April 1," he said.

In terms of future planning for the SKDS 2.0 pilot project, he said the KPDN and the Finance Ministry (MoF) were looking at the need to expand the pilot project to other land transport sectors (goods) that are suitable, to tackle the risk of leakage and smuggling of subsidised diesel more efficiently and effectively.

"This digital method can help reduce the cost of inspection and enforcement which is done physically as we have deployed about 2,200 enforcement personnel so far," he said.

The SKDS 2.0 for land transport, a pilot project by the ministry, to be implemented for two months from today, aims to provide a mechanism for the retargeting of diesel subsidies.

The mechanism of using the Fleet Card is one of the government's efforts to switch from the Analog Skid Tank System to the Fleet Card to ensure that targeted subsidies can be implemented in an integrated manner.

It is also to ensure cases of leakage and smuggling are kept to a minimum, he said.

-- BERNAMA