KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — The Transport Ministry plans to reduce the fine for traffic offences with the impending introduction of the Awareness Automated Safety System (AWAS).

Its deputy minister, Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi, said this was because the new system — a merger of the Automated Enforcement System (AES) and the Kejara demerit system — had inbuilt deterrents for motorists.

He said heavy fines were not necessary to keep errant motorists in check.

“Heavy fines for summonses will only be effective against those in the lower income group. They will not be a burden for those in the high income group who  are likely to repeat the offences,” he said at the Parliament lobby yesterday.

Aziz, the Sri Gading MP, said AWAS was expected to be implemented by the middle of the year after the Road Transport Act was amended in Parliament next month.

“We had to delay the implementation to next month so that we can amend the act,’ he said.

Under the new system, only summonses issued by the Road Transport Department (RTD) will be reflected in AWAS, with the possibility of police summonses being included later.

“ We are proposing that police summonses be included but this has to be decided by the government,” he said.

Aziz expected the implementation of AWAS to be smooth as all potential problems had been ironed out.

On the Kejara system, he said a warning would be issued to motorists when they reached 20 demerit points.

Their driving licence would  be suspended at 40 points and cancelled at 60 points.

Aziz said that when a motorist’s licence was  suspended, he had the option to undergo a rehabilitation course conducted by the RTD to reduce his period of suspension.

The maximum suspension period was a year.

He said the ministry was also considering incentives for those who did not break traffic laws for two years after paying up their fines.

“For those whose licence has been revoked, they will have to wait a year before sitting their driving test again,” he said.

On AES cameras, Aziz said there were only 14 cameras nationwide with more to be installed.

He said there were more than 100 accident-prone areas in the country and the ministry was looking at placing more cameras on highways, federal roads and traffic lights.

Aziz said the state governments had yet to to submit the list of sensitive spots in their states.

Since police were in charge of mobile cameras, the ministry had suggested that they use these cameras more than 50km  from the AES cameras.

“We want to be fair to the people,” he said

On Feb 24, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai announced the merging of AES and Kejara, saying this was to ensure a more holistic approach to a reduction in road accidents.

Kejara was launched in 1997 but was put on hold soon after.

The AES system was introduced in 2011 but was put not fully implemented becaiuse of enforcement issues as it was operated by a private company.

It was brought back in 2012 but met with strong public objection.

In December that year, the Attorney-General decided to halt all court proceedings related to summonses issued under AES to study legal issues raised.

A year later, the Dewan Rakyat adopted a motion to allow the government to take over AES.