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Over the weekend, my cousin called my brother to inform him that they will be selling off my grand parents estate and my late mum will receive a portion of it. We are to go and apply for Letter of Administration from the courts to be able to receive the inheritance. Not sure the details yet, dont know how much will be receiving as there are eight sibling. But thinking of it, brings a smile to my face. Hope that it will be a substantial amount. I also hope not to spend all of it away. Hope to keep it for retirement. Anyone been through this?

ST 31/05 LTA will not revise open market value due to court ruling, so scrap worth stays By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent MORE than 17,000 Hyundai owners who bought their cars between 1996 and 2001 were expecting some good news - a letter from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) telling them the scrap value of their cars would be raised. But these letters have not been sent, due in part to a Supreme Court ruling on May 17. The case before the court involved the LTA's effort to collect additional taxes on 17,449 vehicles sold by Hyundai agent Komoco which the authority believes are due to it. The amount of more than $7 million in additional registration fees (ARF) arose from a revision of import values on the cars carried out by Singapore Customs in 2004. In a practice that dates from the 1960s, the LTA reworked the cars' ARF payable based on Singapore Customs' new assessment. But the court ruled it should not always be so. Asked by The Straits Times if it would write to tell Hyundai owners of the revised open market value (OMV) - as it has done in past cases - the LTA said it will not revise the OMVs 'for the time being''. A car's OMV determines its tax, price and resale value. The rebate payable when the car is deregistered also hinges on the OMV. A car with a $15,000 OMV can be priced more competitively than one with a $16,000 OMV, as car taxes are multiples of the value. Supreme Court judge Judith Prakash ruled that the LTA should reconsider its decision regarding Komoco because it had not considered 'with an open mind' if there were any 'exceptional circumstances''. The LTA would not reveal what it intends to do next, saying 'the matter is under review with our lawyers''. However, if the authority fails to get Komoco to pay up, it may have to work much harder to retrieve ARF payable in the future. 'It sets an unwanted precedent,'' said Mr Cecil Leong, managing director of Customs consulting firm Bryan Cave International Trade. Mr Leong is familiar with Customs valuation cases. The Straits Times also understands that the court ruling may exert 'a heavy administrative burden'' on the LTA. When it conducted an audit in 2001, Customs found the OMV of the Hyundais to be too low. Komoco had denied that its OMVs were incorrect, but paid Customs a fine in 2004 to avoid going to court. Justice Prakash said the LTA 'had the power to revise the ARF payable on a motor vehicle'', but the way it arrived at its conclusion in the Komoco case was incorrect. She said the authority had based its decision solely on the action of Singapore Customs. Justice Prakash said the LTA had 'fettered'' its discretion by its 'unwavering adherence to the policy of adopting Customs' valuation of the OMVs as a basis for assessing the ARF payable''. She also ruled that the LTA had 'unlawfully delegated its authority to Customs by refusing to consider whether or not exceptional circumstances applied''. In the past, the LTA has 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. Its actions helped raise the scrap rebate of thousands of vehicles in the past. Motor traders said the case is intriguing. 'If LTA fails to get Komoco to pay up, the deterrent against underdeclaring OMV becomes weaker,'' one said, explaining that ARF payment is often higher than what is due to Customs. Asked why it does not get valuations right in the first place, rather than spend time and effort auditing traders long after cars are sold, Singapore Customs said: 'To allow for speedier clearance at the entry point, we conduct post-clearance audit subsequent to the release of goods. 'Where there is underdeclaration, Singapore Customs will take action to recover the revenues.''