BANGKOK – Drivers in the capital will now enjoy the convenience of paying bribes to police electronically, according to a new system unveiled by the Bangkok Metropolitan Police yesterday.
The EZ-Bribe card is modeled after the EZ Pass that motorists have been using to pay tolls without having to stop. Similar to the EZ Pass system, the EZ-Bribe card is a stored value card that instantly deducts the price of a single-trip police bribe from the user’s account whenever the car passes a police checkpoint.
To accommodate the new system, police checkpoints will now have a dedicated EZ-Bribe lane, where member motorists can drive straight through. Those without an EZ-Bribe sticker on their windshields will have to use the manual lanes and haggle over bribes in the traditional manner.
Opening promotional prices have been set at ฿100 per private passenger car, ฿60 for pickup trucks, ฿30 for motorcycles, and ฿200 for any vehicle carrying a Serpico sticker.
Luxury cars costing over ฿12 million, such as the Mercedes S500 and the BMW 7 Series will, as always, be exempt from all bribes, interference, and law.
Kamronwit also pointed out that the EZ-Bribe system works in the rain, which makes it superior to actual police officers.
