PARF rebate cuts unlikely to significantly affect COE renewals: Jeffrey Siow

The Acting Minister for Transport estimates that fewer than 2,000 car buyers who had signed sales contracts were affected by the revised car scrapping rebates.

SINGAPORE: The reduction in rebates for car owners who scrap their vehicles early is unlikely to significantly affect decisions on whether to renew Certificates of Entitlement (COEs), Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow said on Wednesday (Mar 4).

He was responding to parliamentary questions on the revised Preferential Additional Registration Fee (PARF) rebates, including whether it would affect car prices and demand, and whether studies had been conducted.

Mr Siow said the PARF rebate was meant to keep the vehicle population in Singapore younger, safer and less pollutive. The rebate is given to those who scrapped their cars before the 10-year COE ran out.

With electric vehicles becoming more popular, less incentive is needed to encourage early deregistration, he added.

The rebates were reduced by 45 percentage points and are now capped at S$30,000 (US$23,000). Owners could previously receive rebates of between 50 per cent and 75 per cent, capped at S$60,000.