Owning a car is a luxury in the small island-city that is Singapore. It is beyond the affordability of many because of its steep costs. It is a status symbol and if any one of your friends drive a car, you automatically assume they make a lot of money.
Which is no fault of yours. Indeed, owning a car does require one to earn above a certain pay-grade in order to have a car AND make ends meet comfortably.
Apart from the actual cost of buying the car, which can range vastly depending on the make and model of your choice, you also have to think about the other costs behind owning the car. So here’s what you need to consider before paying that hefty down-payment.
Car Fees and Taxes
Once you have placed an order for the car you want and successfully obtained the loan, you still have quite a number of other things to pay for.
When you collect your vehicle, you will need to pay a registration fee of S$140. There is also an additional registration fee (ARF), which is a tax, calculated using a percentage of your car’s Open Market Value (OMV).
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Then you will also have to pay an excise duty, which is a tax imposed by Singapore Customs, and is also calculated using a percentage from the OMV of the car.
If you opt to de-register your car via export or scrap it before it reaches the age of 10 years, you would be awarded the Preferential Additional Registration Fee (PARF).
Road taxes are renewed either at every 6 months or on a yearly basis, with certain conditions in place – periodic vehicle inspections and motor insurance for the new licensing term are part of its requirements.
Diesel cars have a special tax levied onto them which needs to be paid in addition to the car’s road tax. For more information on vehicle fees and taxes, visit the Land Transport Authority’s official website.