It is a case of government profiteering at the misery of the
people without solving the problems.
Taxes after taxes imposed from excise to coe to erp with the
promise to solve road congestion problem.
Any solution to the problem after collecting all these taxes?
ERP was proposed as the final and most effective be-all-and-end-all
solution to road congestion problem, but has it been proven as the
ultimate and final solution?
If ERP was introduced island wide and the problem still remain the
same as before and not solved and every was taxed till he is a poor
man where is the result to justify road pricing as proposed. It
would mean some other solutions will be needed which will be more
effective without making the citizens poorer without solving
problem to be solved in the first place.
Obviously there is a lot to be reviewed in the way car ownership is
being taxed under the present excise, coe and ERP combination
solution.
It would seem that government is happy to make such triple taxes as
milking cow and as long as monies keep coming whether or not it is
the solution, the minister in charge does not seen to care very
much now.
After ERP is levied island wide, congestion is the same. Why?
Because people who already paid for car must drive and must fetch
their children to school or earn a living. For these people, ERP at
S$10 will not deter them from driving. So clearly excise COE and
ERP combination still cannot solve problem. It is questionable
therefore to tax on excise and add the COE and then add the ERP
which still cannot solve the problem.
If this is the case then excise and coe should be scrapped as it is
meaningless to tax without these without the corresponding
results.
Let ERP be the only and the final pricing mechanism then as its
rates be raised to the level to deter or discourage unnecessary
road usage, and road hogging by cars.
So I recommend scrapping the excise duty and COE and let ERP fee
rise so that those who can afford them will pay for them and those
who cannot will keep the car at home and drive them only
sparingly.
Let them save the excise duty and COE to pay for ERP.
Let the scholars study long and hard this problem and come out with
when will really deter car usage so that only those who have the
need to drive them will use them.
The real pricing mechanism is at the final usage - to drive or not
to drive. It can be seen in the case of weekend car. Because tax is
S$20 per day which is deterrent enough not many of them will drive
during the working hours and will drive only at weekend or at
night.
This way the vehicle tax will be only ERP and people will save some
monies for usage of cars instead of paying all the taxes without
solving problems supposed to be solved when introducing ERP.
Do not tax unnecessarily and remove taxes which are ineffective and
increase only those which are effective to solve problems.