No plans to increase fee for lost MyKad: NRD

KUALA LUMPUR: There are no plans to increase the fee for a lost MyKad, despite a revision on the charges imposed on lost passports by the Immigration Department already on the cards.
National Registration Department (NRD) deputy director-general (operations) Datuk Mohd Zahari Hassan said unlike passports, which are usually applied by those who can afford to travel overseas, MyKad is a basic document necessary for all qualified citizens.
He said increasing the fee to process a lost MyKad alone would not tackle the issue of these losses, claiming that awareness is a more important factor.
"We always look at those who can't afford (to pay the fines), who sometimes lose their cards unintentionally, or get robbed and what not, before proposing an increase in the fees," he said today.
Under the current system, which was last revised in October 2015, a citizen who loses his or her MyKad for the first time will have to pay RM100 in processing fee, RM300 for the second time lost, and RM1,000 for the third and subsequent times.
Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali had, last week, said they plan to increase the fine for a lost passport to RM200 for the first time, RM500 (second time) and RM1,000 for the third and subsequent times.
Mohd Zahari also pointed out that there have been a downward trend in the number of lost MyKad over the years, with 169,381 lost cards up to May 31 this year, compared to 422,029 in 2016, 426,992 (2015), 430,566 (2014) and 447,679 (2013).
He said the two main reasons of these lost cards were either due to negligence or being victims of crimes.
Mohd Zahari was speaking to a press conference after launching the Federal Territories's MyKad Distributed Printing Project (DPP) Hub, at the Seputeh NRD branch.
With the DPP Hub, NRD offices that lack a MyKad printing machine will be able to have applicants' MyKad printed at these hubs, instead of having them printed in NRD's headquarters in Putrajaya previously.
This will allow a lower delivery expenses as well as shorten the delivery time to five workings (from ten) for offices in the peninsular, and seven days (from 30) for offices in Sabah and Sarawak.
Kuala Lumpur is now the sixth state in the country to have its own DPP Hub, with more expected to be opened in other states soon.