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Parliament passes amendments to Road Traffic Act
By Imelda Saad | Posted: 16 November 2012 2110 hrs

	Click to enlarge Photos 1of 1 File photo of road traffic in Singapore (Photo by: Hester Tan, channelnewsasia.com)
	Video Parliament passes amendments to Road Traffic Act Special Report Singapore Parliament

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SINGAPORE : Parliament has passed amendments to the Road Traffic Act, paving the way for stiffer penalties against vehicles that are illegally modified.

The new bill will also allow for the introduction of a new scheme aimed at incentivising motorists to buy cars with low carbon emissions.

Members of Parliament (MPs) who spoke on the bill welcomed the enhancements but wanted to see more done.

The number of illegal modification offences has tripled from about 2,500 in 2009 to 7,300 in 2011.

Of these, offences relating to illegal modification of the exhaust system increased three-fold, from about 80 cases per month in 2010 to 250 cases per month this year.

"Such illegal modifications to a vehicle's exhaust system not only compromise vehicle safety and therefore the safety of other road users, but also result in excessive noise emissions and public nuisance," said Minister of State for Transport, Josephine Teo.

Under the enhanced penalty, the court can impound illegally-modified vehicles for up to three months.

This is on top of a possible jail term for repeat offenders.

MPs noted that such a move will be painful for motorists of such vehicles, but they asked if workshops involved in such modifications should also face stiffer penalties.

In response, Mrs Teo said: "Not all types of modifications are illegal and so workshops that undertake modification works are not necessarily breaking the law. For example, if the vehicle is going to be used off the road at specialised race tracks, they could be legal."

She elaborated: "Currently, our enforcement regime targets owners of illegally-modified vehicles. One reason is they do not necessarily need to do the modifications in a workshop in Singapore. They could go elsewhere to get the modifications done, in which case enforcement against the workshops will not be terribly effective. It is better to enforce against the vehicle owners themselves. That is one reason we have targeted the owners as rather than the workshops.

"But nonetheless, we do agree that it is important to get the workshops on board as well, and so LTA (Land Transport Authority) is in the midst of reviewing the enforcement and legislation against workshops; for example, the closure of workshops may be an effective deterrent for them."

Mrs Teo added the government is also taking a calibrated approach in enhancing the penalties.

She said that it