PUBLISHED ONSeptember 03, 2024 10:30 PMBySean Ler"Misleading claims".
This was the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) response to The Workers' Party's (WP) Facebook post on Sept 1 (Sunday) claiming that they had earlier proposed the recently announced waiver of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) administrative charge in Parliament back in 2017.
On Aug 30, the authorities announced that starting October 1, motorists who fail to pay ERP charges will have the administrative charge waived if they settle their missed fees within a five-day grace period.
In its Sunday post, the WP noted that Faisal Manap, MP for Aljunied GRC, had filed a parliamentary question to then-Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan in 2017 about allowing motorists to pay for failed ERP deductions electronically within a reasonable period without incurring the administrative fee, or pay a less punitive fee.
Khaw's written reply then explained that motorists who make good their failed ERP deductions are required to pay an administrative fee to cover the costs of processing the ERP violation, notification and payment.
And that it "will not be fair for taxpayers to bear these costs on the motorists' behalf".
LTA's Facebook post on Sept 3 said that the recently announced waiver is not the same as what WP proposed in 2017.
LTA reiterated Khaw's reply that motorists who missed the ERP payments are required to pay the administrative charge to cover the cost of processing the ERP violation, notification, and payment.
It added that the explanation remains valid as there is a distinction between motorists and taxpayers (including non-motorists) bearing the costs.
"The recent announcement by LTA is not the same as what WP proposed in 2017, as we are not asking taxpayers to bear the administrative charges on a permanent basis", said the LTA in its Facebook post.
"We are now able to introduce the 5-day grace period because we re-designed our workflow to leverage on the capabilities provided by ERP 2.0 to detect, notify and facilitate the missed payments."
LTA added that with ERP 2.0, they will no longer need to process and send letters to motorists if they make payments within the 5-day grace period.
"Hence, we will not incur these administrative costs and do not need to impose the $10 administrative charge on motorists who pay within the grace period," it added
"We hope the above explanation clarifies the facts, and helps the public to understand what actually happened so they would not get confused by misleading claims."
In announcing the removal of administrative charges for ERP fees made within a five-day grace period from Oct 1, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said on Aug 30 that the roll-out of the ERP 2.0 system meant that motorists who missed ERP payments can eventually do so via the on-board unit (OBU) when the feature is rolled out.
"With the installation of ERP 2.0, there's no longer a need for us to send them a letter, and therefore, there's no longer a need for LTA to charge them (motorists who missed ERP payments) the $10 admin fee," he said.
Failure to do so after the 5-day grace period will still result in a letter notification to pay the missed ERP fees and a $10 administrative charge - or $8 if paid online - followed by a $70 fine if the motorist still refuses to pay the amount.
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