No decision yet to lower road tax after new ERP system

There is no decision yet to adjust road tax or dole out special concession for high-mileage users such as taxi and private-hire drivers when the next-generation Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system kicks in from 2023.

Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor said it would be "premature" to address questions posed by Workers' Party MP Gerald Giam (Aljunied GRC) on the system, dubbed ERP 2.0.

Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied GRC Gerald Giam had asked if ERP 2.0 would be "revenue neutral", if road tax would be reduced when distance-based charging is turned on, and whether there would be concessionary rates for people who drive for work such as cabbies and delivery riders.

Distance charging was "several years away", Dr. Khor said, echoing what Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in February.

"We need to give the next-gen ERP time to settle and, actually, also gives us time to collect information on traffic patterns, travel patterns, distance travel impact, for instance, on the different types of motorists," she said. "Then we can study the different options and approaches and come to a decision."

On Mr. Giam's question on whether ERP 2.0 would have a coupon-less parking function in its initial phase, Dr. Khor pointed out that such a function was already available with the Parking.sg app, which was rolled out by GovTech three years ago. She added that ERP 2.0 will also have such a function, but it is not its core feature.