Car workshops & service centres are still waiting for approval from MITI, why so slow?

Many independent car workshops and authorised service centres are still waiting for their approvals to operate during full MCO from MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry).

Mind you, these are workshops that previously received approval from MITI to operate under MCO 1.0 and 2.0. But come to FMCO, they were met with tidak lulus or pending approval.

Car workshop and service centre operators are panicking as the old MITI approval letters will be voided tomorrow (4 June) and they will not be able to operate for the coming 2 weeks.

“Aren’t we classified under essential services? Why make it so difficult? Beer factories got instant approval (although now revoked).

"If police cars, delivery vans, ambulances need to patch a puncture and we can’t operate, who’s going to do it for them?” said a frustrated tyre workshop owner in Kuala Lumpur.

When the government announced a U-turn that approval letters can be obtained from MITI’s CMS 3.0 (at 6 pm 31 May, 1 day before total lockdown), businesses rushed to log in and the website was overloaded and highly unstable.

Some only managed to submit their application on June 1 but have yet to receive approval from MITI. There are also cases where car workshop and authorised service centres’ application was rejected despite being listed under essential services.

The police force will still accept the old MITI letter until June 3 but come June 4, businesses that have yet to obtain MITI approval will be forced to close – even though they are listed as essential services.

A tyre repair shop operator told WapCar: “The many U-turns have caused a lot of stress. I want to keep my business open; I have cut my headcount to just 2 technicians and myself.

"I follow all the SOPs, submitted all the documents but I still haven’t gotten my approval until today (12:30 pm, June 3).

"If government tell me I cannot open, ok fine I don’t open. But keep dragging it out like this, how to survive?

I’m not selling 1,000 tyres a day; nowadays people are coming in to do (tyre) patching, change 1 tyre or do simple service. If the government can make things smoother and clearer for us, we will be very thankful.”

The phone number listed on MITI website for CMS 3.0 approvals remains unreachable.