A well-placed source told FMT the government was seeking to placate an outraged public.

The RM35 stickers cannot be installed inside the car. “So they are stuck on the external side of windshields or on the headlights,” said the source. “The problem is wear and tear. They can be damaged after several car washes.”

He acknowledged that this had caused complaints among road users over the cost of switching to RFID.

“The idea of shifting to RFID from Touch ‘n Go and SmarTAG is a good one, but everything must run smoothly,” he said. “The government has told PLUS and Touch ‘n Go to make sure that everything is in order.”

Yesterday, former prime minister Najib Razak questioned the RM35 selling price, although the stickers can be bought online for RM1 each.

Najib said in a Facebook post that the price should be reduced to RM5 if not to zero.

FMT is contacting Touch ‘n Go for its comment.

On Monday, senior minister for works Fadillah Yusof told Touch ‘n Go and PLUS to take immediate steps to resolve problems arising from the use of the RFID payment system.

This came after backlash from the public over massive traffic congestion at some toll booths when RFID came into use on the North-South Expressway from the Juru toll plaza in Penang to the Skudai plaza in Johor.

PLUS has said that at least one RFID lane would be provided at each of the 83 toll plazas along the 657km route.