The Land Transport Authority (LTA) believes fines must be increased as they are not deterring poor driver behaviour, states the Fiscal Review Committee in a recently released report.
The LTA had made a presentation to the committee and outlined five ambitious proposals to improve revenue and operations.
“As with other statutory authorities, LTA is not in control of its own revenue. Revenue received is paid into the consolidated fund and in return, LTA receives an operating grant. LTA earns both ‘planned’ revenue (registrations, licensing, permits and inspection fees – approximately 7 per cent) and ‘unplanned’ revenue (speed cameras and other enforcement activities),” states the committee.
“LTA believes fines must be increased as they are not generally deterring poor driver behaviour, including speeding. This would (incidentally) increase revenue.
“A number of LTA’s fees for services – including for vehicle inspections and PSV permits – have not been increased for 20 years and are now heavily discounted compared to the cost of providing the service.
“Budgetary and funding constraints, including the current round of ‘fiscal consolidation’ have compromised a number of its core functions, particularly regulatory monitoring and enforcement.
“For example, government no longer funds overtime payments for LTA personnel. As a result, LTA believes that overloaded trucks operate largely by night in the knowledge that they will not be subject to weighbridge inspections, with consequent damage to roads and risks to vehicle fitness.
“Many of LTA’s regulatory targets are voters. There is also political sensitivity to increasing charges on the bus industry given that the bus industry generally complains about increasing costs while its own regulated fare pricing structures are too low.
“This raises the question of whether it is fair or economically transparent for an agency such as LTA, which incurs costs in regulating transport activity, to be prevented from making full recovery of those costs – on the basis that the Government, if it wishes to subsidise these costs, can reimburse LTA to the extent of the subsidy.”
