ROAD TRAFFIC (AMENDMENT) BILL

Order for Second Reading read.

The Minister for Communications and Information (Dr Yeo Ning Hong): Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time."

Sir, my colleague, the Minister for Finance, has explained in some detail the reasons for the Customs (Amendment) Bill. This Bill, the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill is meant to enhance the effectiveness of the former Bill. The House has already just passed a moment ago the Customs (Amendment) Bill requiring drivers of motor vehicles leaving Singapore to have more than half a tankful of petrol. Let me go into the details of the present Bill.

Clause 3 of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the Act to empower the Minister to make rules on the use and proper maintenance of fuel-measuring equipment in motor vehicles. The objective is to ensure that fuel gauges are kept in proper working condition at all times, providing a true reading of the quantity of petrol in the fuel tank of the vehicle. Anyone using a vehicle with a faulty fuel gauge shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $500.

Clause 4 makes it an offence to alter any fuel-measuring equipment of any motor vehicle for the purpose of preventing it from registering the true indication of the amount of petrol in the vehicle's fuel tank.

Sir, the Bill also seeks to create a rebuttable presumption that the person using or owning a motor vehicle with artificial or mechanical means that alter the fuel gauge has abetted in the altering of the fuel gauge. Any person who alters or abets in the alteration of the meter shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to an imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.

Sir, these two Bills, the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill together with the Customs (Amendment) Bill, will help us contain the problem of evasion of duty on petrol and will enable petrol duty to be used as one of the restraint measures on the usage of cars.

Sir, I would also like to respond to a point raised earlier by the Chairman of the GPC for Communications and Information, where he has made the plea for officials, both Customs officials as well as the ROV officials, to be flexible and not create undue inconvenience to motorists. That is the intention of these two Bills, to make it as easy and as convenient for the motorists as possible.

Sir, I beg to move.

Question put, and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.

The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Dr Yeo Ning Hong].

Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.