Exactly a week after I complained about having to pay a $40 penalty for 'late' renewal of my car's road tax (see January 30 post below), I received good news yesterday from the Land Transport Authority.
The LTA said it had considered my appeal and would waive the late renewal fee.
I am glad the LTA had considered my email to Reach, the government's feedback unit, as an appeal when my purpose was really to point out the injustice of having to pay a penalty.
I had forgotten to renew the road tax because of a family emergency. An alert was sent to me by MyeCitizen, a service provided by the government, a day after its expiry.
When I made my renewal minutes after receiving the alert, I was surprised to discover that I had to pay the $40 penalty. I disagreed with this because I had not even driven my car out of my porch.
In its email to me, the LTA says the rule is that it is an offence for anyone to KEEP, use or allow the use of a vehicle without a valid road tax.
If that is the case, I wonder whether all the car companies are paying road tax for those unregistered cars in their showrooms.
I hope the LTA would consider imposing the penalty two days after the expiry to give a chance for motorists who have been alerted by MyeCitizen to pay up without being penalised.
Otherwise, MyeCitizen should be sending out its alerts a day earlier -- on the expiry date itself.
1 comment:
I am surprised that a late fee payment had been impounded on me as I am on GIRO. I managed to renew my insurance on 26 Nov 2019 and the deduction of GIRO should be on 27 Nov 2019. Luckily, I took the trouble to check my road tax on line and discovered that my road has expired since then. The deduction of GIRO should begin on the last day of the expiry of the road tax. BY paying through GIRO is to facilitate the owner to pay promptly but not to cause so much of inconvenient. It is not fair for me to be penalized for late payment. Please look into this.
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