【mypaper】27/02/2013
The National Taxi Association
(NTA) has strongly urged taxi
operators to pass on the savings from a road-tax rebate in the
Budget to taxi hirers.
"The amount will help greatly
in relieving some of the financial burden that comes with rising
business-operation costs for this group of self-employed taxi
drivers," said NTA president Wee Boon Kim in a statement
yesterday.
In his Budget statement on
Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman
Shanmugaratnam announced that commercial-vehicle owners will be
granted a one-year 30 per cent road-tax rebate.
This covers goods vehicles,
buses and taxis, and will take effect on July 1. It is expected to
yield savings of about $46 million for businesses.
In 2009, a similar one-year 30
per cent road-tax rebate on commercial vehicles was extended during
that year's Budget.
Mr Wee said NTA was pleased
that all taxi operators decided to pass on the full savings to taxi
hirers in 2009, and that he hoped that this "goodwill" can
continue.
On Monday, Mr Tharman also
announced a tweaking of the certificate-of-entitlement (COE) system
for commercial vehicles.
Currently, owners can renew
their COEs for only five years with no further extension, or pay
more for a 10-year renewal, after their vehicles reach the end of
the 10-year COE lifespan.
With the change, owners who
choose to renew their COEs for five years will be allowed to extend
their COEs further for another five years.