I REFER to Mr Seah Sian Boey's letter, "He may lose rebate on scrapped car" (ST, Jan 8).

We would like to highlight that the Preferential Additional Registration Fee (Parf) scheme is intended to encourage timely replacement of old vehicles so as to maintain a roadworthy car population in Singapore.

Essentially, the Parf is a tax concession accorded to vehicle owners who scrap and replace their cars before the vehicles are 10 years old.

In such cases, vehicle owners can use the Parf to offset the cost of upfront car-ownership taxes such as the Additional Registration Fee (ARF), Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premium and Registration Fee at the point of registration of a new car.

Hence, the Parf is a discount on upfront taxes and is not meant as a cash refund. Nor can the Parf be used to offset recurrent taxes such as road tax and vehicle-transfer fee.

We would like to clarify that the additional Parf rebate of $444 was granted to Mr Seah as a result of an upward adjustment of the Open Market Value (OMV) for his de-registered car. In such instances of upward OMV adjustment, the additional Parf rebate is granted to the last registered owner.

Similar to Parf, additional Parf rebate due to an upward OMV adjustment can be used only to offset the ARF, COE premium and Registration Fee at the point of registration of a car. It cannot be refunded in cash or used to offset recurrent taxes such as road tax.

To enable car owners to maximise the use of the Parf benefits, which are valid for a period of one year, several Parf certificates can be used for the registration of one car.

The Government also allows owners to transfer the Parf certificates to a third party if they do not intend to register a new car, at an administrative fee of $10 for the transfer of each Parf rebate.

Suhana Kharudin (Ms)
Manager
Media Relations
Land Transport Authority