The new regulation requires cars to allow 70% of light to be able to pass through the front windscreen, 50% through the front side windows, and 30% through the rear windows.
Speaking to The New Paper, Jimmy Poh, owner of Zen Car Services, said: “Malaysian authorities should be more concerned with regulating Malaysian cars as their windows have darker tints than ours.”
Eileen Lin, manager of Rikecool Automotive Film, said many Malaysian cars entering Singapore also failed to adhere to the republic’s laws on window tinting.
“Most Malaysian cars use reflective tint, which is illegal in Singapore,” she said.
“Compared to the clear tint that Singaporean drivers use, reflective tint is harder to see through.”
Neither of the two has received requests to modify car window tinting to match the new Malaysian law. Both consider it unlikely to happen.
The law had been passed to deter entry of drug traffickers and Islamic State(IS) militants into Malaysia.
Deputy Transport Minister Abdul Aziz Kaprawi had said in Parliament: “The Road Transport Department will take immediate action in barring foreign vehicles with dark window tints from entering Malaysia. Those entering Malaysia will have to remove the dark window tint of their vehicles.”
An estimated 326,000 vehicles cross the border of Malaysia and Singapore every day.