Komoco Lost OMV case against LTA

[Eng40765]

Does it mean that OMV of Hyundai cars on the road would go up?

[macrosszero]

Hyundai hasn't been selling well of late. I wonder if this 7 million dollar fine is the killer blow for a car dealership that has already hit tough times.

[Dynaway]

haha... the pot calling kettle black..... now someone gotta slap himself hard in his own face...

[Firstcall]

waz the story?

[Verve]

i thought someone posted recently that komoco won

[Lobangking88]

Believe they might pay in instalments ?

[Eng40765]

This is latest on 23 October.

 

LTA wins case against Hyundai agent Komoco

Authority can now collect $7m in owed taxes from company.

By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

 

 

Komoco will now have to pay the $7 million or so it owes the LTA in Additional Registration Fees (ARF). -- PHOTO: AFP

 

THE Court of Appeal on Tuesday ruled in favour of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in its appeal against an earlier verdict on a case involving car taxes owed by Hyundai agent Komoco.

After hearing arguments put forth by senior lawyers Sundaresh Menon, for LTA, and Harry Elias, for Komoco, over four hours on Monday, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong and Justices Andrew Phang and V K Rajah concluded that the LTA had given "genuine consideration" to Komoco's case. And that it had the right to pursue Komoco for those owed taxes.

 

Whether the authority had given the company, owned by tycoon Ong Beng Seng, a "fair hearing" was the crux of the appeal that came before the judges this week. In May, judge Judith Prakash ruled that LTA should hear Komoco out, and not simply rely on a Singapore Customs finding that the company had declared incorrectly the value of over 17,000 vehicles.

 

Following Justice Prakash unprecedented ruling, the LTA filed an appeal in June. Tuesday's Court of Appeal verdict means Komoco will now have to pay the $7 million or so it owes the LTA in Additional Registration Fees (ARF) of 17,449 Hyundais sold between 1996 and 2001.

 

The Straits Times understands the LTA will write to owners of the vehicles to inform them of adjustments to their scrap values. But since many of these vehicles have already been taken off the road, this could be an academic exercise for some.

 

The case brings to light a practice dating back to the 1960s, when LTA applied taxes on cars based on Singapore Customs' valuation of the vehicles. In the past, the LTA had recovered tens of millions of dollars in ARF this way. In 1998, it collected $28 million from Toyota distributor Borneo Motors and two parallel importers after Customs revised OMVs of 5,000 cars.

 

But the largest amount, said to be over $40 million, was owed by former Rover importer Intra-Motors. The subsidiary of government-linked Intraco could not pay up and eventually went out of business.

 

Komoco is believed to be the first motor trader to challenge the LTA's practice.

 

Meanwhile, Singapore Customs is currently auditing several parallel importers for wrong declarations of car values. Last month, Ng Chee Siang, 24, and Chua Wee Meng, 37, were charged in court for trying to recover documents seized by Customs for such an investigation. The two are linked to what is believed to be the biggest parallel importer in Singapore, which sells brands from Toyota to Porsche.

[Mach]

Why is LTA only looking at the cars still on the road ?

 

Affected owners who scrapped their Hyundai cars would have gotten a rebate from the government based on the ARF declared by Komoco. Less declared ARF, less rebate paid to owners by LTA.

 

Now that LTA is going to collect the difference from Komoco, is it not fair that they pay out the difference to owners who already scrapped their cars ?

 

But I guess this will be too "complicated" and "too much administrative work" for our top class civil service to cope with.

[Eng40765]

Due to the tax structure in Singapore, more of these cases where ARF are undeclared will be scrutised by LTA, starting with the big fishes - authorised distributors.

 

When the system is in place, the smaller players like PI will get it. Taxes are meant to be paid, whether u sell cars or curry puffs.

[Apollo]

dun b guillible, u think they did this for u the driver?

 

it's all wayang.

[Mach]

The ARF system has been around for donkey years, I am surprised that LTA has taken this long to do its audit. Now is 2007 they complete period 1996-2001, of course a lot of the cars are no longer on the road.

[Mach]

For us ? Of course not lah.

 

But since these owners are indirectly beneficiaries of the ARF adjustments, doesn't seem fair that those who scrapped their cars should be excluded, just because LTA took so long to look into this matter.

[Porker]

This did this to get more funds for their transport projects lah

[Eng40765]

Good one there......

[Ixat]

I think even if the cars are no longer on the road, LTA still has the records and they will surely try to take back what is owed to them even though?

 

Anyway with this OMV thingy, how does it affect end buyers? Now dealers will declare a higher or correct OMV and pass on difference to consumers?

[Mach]

excuse me ? LTA has or will be recovering the taxes due to it from Komoco, not from owners. In fact LTA should be paying back the difference to owners who scrapped their cars already.

 

But as bros here noted, the money is probably needed for nation building.

[Ixat]

Hehe sorry bro I must be confused.

 

So end of story is...no difference for buyers ah? Hope it doesn't in turn push up prices now with all dealers more worried about under-declaring OMVs.

[Apollo]

yup.. nation building

 

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/218777.asp