Drive a Singapore car into Malaysia and you meet two different bills. The first is a flat RM20 road charge taken once when you cross at the Causeway or Second Link. The second is the actual Malaysia toll charges on the highways you use after that, which depend on distance and are paid electronically by Touch 'n Go card or RFID tag. As of June 2026, a card costs RM10, an RFID tag costs RM35 one-time, and a one-way run from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur on the North-South Expressway is roughly RM33 for a private car. Here is every fee, what is fixed, what scales with your trip, and where the small charges quietly add up.
There is no single "toll" for entering Malaysia. The cost stacks in layers, and each layer is charged differently. Knowing which is fixed and which scales with distance is the difference between budgeting RM25 for a JB food run and getting surprised by RM60 of highway tolls on a KL trip.
Below is the full stack for a Class 1 private car as of June 2026. Singapore-side checkpoint fees are included because they hit the same trip, even though they are not Malaysian tolls. If you also want the wider picture on fuel, forex and parking, our Singapore to Johor cost breakdown runs the numbers on a full day trip.
| Charge | Amount | Fixed or scales | Paid via |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore departure fee (Woodlands) | S$0.80 | Fixed per exit | ERP / in-vehicle unit |
| Singapore departure fee (Tuas) | S$2.10 | Fixed per exit | ERP / in-vehicle unit |
| Malaysia road charge on entry | RM20 | Fixed per entry | Touch 'n Go / RFID |
| Causeway / Second Link CIQ toll | Built into electronic payment | Fixed per crossing | Touch 'n Go / SmartTAG / RFID |
| Highway toll (e.g. NSE to KL) | from ~RM33 one-way | Scales with distance | Touch 'n Go / RFID |
| Reciprocal charge if a Malaysia car enters SG | S$6.40 | Fixed per entry | Collected at SG checkpoint |
Every foreign-registered vehicle pays a RM20 road charge each time it enters Malaysia by road. It is deducted from your Touch 'n Go balance or RFID-linked wallet as you clear the Malaysian side. This is separate from any highway toll and separate from the Vehicle Entry Permit.
Two points trip people up. First, the RM20 is per entry, so a weekend with two crossings is RM40, not RM20. Second, it is taken automatically from the same card you use for tolls, which is why a near-empty card can stall you at the gantry. Keep a buffer of at least RM50 on the card before you leave home.
The road charge is not a tax you can claim back, and it does not count toward Singapore's GST relief on goods. It is purely a cost of using Malaysian roads as a foreign car.
Malaysian toll booths do not take Singapore EZ-Link, NETS or cash from foreign cards. At many plazas a manual cash lane still exists, but the Causeway and Second Link CIQ tolls are electronic only, so you need a working e-payment method before you cross. The three accepted options are the Touch 'n Go card, the SmartTAG transponder, and the Touch 'n Go RFID tag.
RFID is now the default. Under Malaysia's move toward barrier-free tolling, more lanes (including stretches of the North-South Expressway) are RFID-only, and SmartTAG units are being phased out. The physical Touch 'n Go card still works at most plazas and remains the simplest first card for an occasional visitor. Our Touch 'n Go card guide covers reloading from Singapore and the balance fees that quietly eat your card.
| Method | Upfront cost | How it pays | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Touch 'n Go card | RM10 (empty card) | Tap at booth, balance deducted | Occasional day trips |
| Touch 'n Go RFID tag | RM35 one-time | Auto-scan, drawn from e-wallet | Regular drivers, NSE trips |
| SmartTAG transponder | Being phased out | In-car device reads card | Existing owners only |
Crossing itself carries a toll on the Malaysian side. At the Causeway, the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar CIQ toll plaza charges all vehicles electronically only, accepting Touch 'n Go, SmartTAG or RFID. The Second Link (Tanjung Kupang) works the same way. Both plazas are deliberately excluded from Malaysia's festive toll-discount campaigns, so you never get the holiday rebate on the crossing.
On the Singapore side you also pay a departure fee each time you leave: S$0.80 at Woodlands and S$2.10 at Tuas. These are not Malaysian tolls, but they land on the same trip. If a Malaysia-registered car drives into Singapore, it instead pays a reciprocal S$6.40 charge, which is worth knowing if you ever borrow a Malaysian plate.
Past JB, the toll you pay depends entirely on where you drive. The North-South Expressway (NSE), run by PLUS, is a closed system: you take a ticket or tag in at one plaza and pay out at another based on distance. A one-way run from the Skudai area near JB to Kuala Lumpur is roughly RM33 for a Class 1 car as of June 2026, which makes a return KL trip around RM66 in highway tolls alone, on top of the road charge and crossing.
Short JB-only trips are much cheaper because you barely touch the tolled network. A meal in town and a mall visit might cost you only the RM20 road charge and the Causeway toll, with little or no NSE toll at all. The bigger money on a JB day usually goes to fuel and forex, not tolls. Before you go, sanity-check the running cost of the car itself with our car cost calculator so the toll line stays in proportion.
Three non-toll rules cost real money and catch Singapore drivers off guard. They belong in any honest toll budget because skipping them turns a cheap trip into a fined one.
Get the Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) sorted before anything else. It is mandatory for all foreign cars and is enforced at the Causeway, with a RM300 compound fine for driving in without a valid tag. We walk through the full process in our VEP cost guide for Singapore cars.
Numbers make the layers concrete. A JB food-and-shopping day, crossing once each way at the Causeway, pays the RM20 road charge, the Causeway toll, and almost no NSE toll, so the Malaysian road bill sits near RM25 plus a small Singapore departure fee. The card and RFID tag are one-time costs you only pay on your first trip.
A KL weekend is a different animal. You still pay the RM20 road charge and the crossing, but now the NSE adds roughly RM33 each way, so highway tolls alone are about RM66. Toll-wise a KL return runs near RM90 before fuel. Spread the one-time RM10 card and RM35 tag over many trips and they fade to noise; it is the NSE distance toll that actually moves your budget.
Expect a fixed RM20 road charge each time you enter, plus the Causeway or Second Link crossing toll, plus distance-based highway tolls. A JB-only day stays near RM25 of Malaysian charges, while a Kuala Lumpur return adds roughly RM66 in North-South Expressway tolls on top.
Yes. Malaysian toll booths do not accept Singapore EZ-Link, NETS or foreign cards, and the Causeway and Second Link CIQ tolls are electronic only. A standard Touch 'n Go card costs RM10 and an RFID tag costs RM35 one-time, with both drawing on a reloadable balance you should keep above RM50.
No, they are three separate things. The RM20 road charge is taken per entry for using Malaysian roads, highway tolls are distance-based fees on expressways like the NSE, and the VEP is a mandatory entry permit whose absence risks a RM300 fine. You can owe all three on one trip.
As of June 2026 no blanket toll increase had been announced, and PLUS along with major urban operators held their 2025 rates. Festive discount campaigns can temporarily cut some highway tolls by half on set dates, but those discounts never apply to the Causeway or Second Link crossings.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.