‘And here i am counting my pennies and deciding on how to maximise my groceries’ — S’poreans respond to boom in BMW, Mercedes-Benz sales despite new luxury tax

SINGAPORE: A report from earlier this week said that despite the cost of owning a luxury car being nearly equivalent to the annual income of a typical family in Singapore, buyers are still snapping up BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes.

Bloomberg reported that 125 bidders offered as much as S$116,020 for rights to owning an “open category” car, usually applied to larger vehicles. “That means the cost of a 10-year ownership permit — the vehicle is not included — is equivalent to 92 per cent of the nation’s median annual household income,” the report added.

It further said that there had been a high number of bids despite higher registration fees for vehicles that cost over S$40,000, which is supposed to bring in an additional S$200 million in revenue.

This government-imposed fee comes from wealth pouring into the country from Hong Kong, mainland China, and India after Singapore lifted pandemic restrictions.

The higher taxes do not appear to deter new car buyers, as some can well-afford one or even more vehicles in Singapore.

Bloomberg added that out of every four vehicles registered in the past few months, one was either a Mercedes-Benz or a BMW.

With the report posted on r/Singapore, many Reddit users underlined that not everyone can afford such luxuries.

“And here I am counting my pennies and deciding on how to maximise the worth of my groceries,” wrote one.

Another Reddit user opined, “The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, thats how it goes…”

“Top 3 registered brands, toyota, merc and BMW. Sgrean are crazy rich,” another responded.

The netizen who posted the Bloomberg article seems to believe that rich foreigners are the ones who get all the perks.

“My country Singapore is becoming a country for rich foreigners with unknown sources of wealth and old monied singaporeans who simply partake in our shinning rentier economy model. The rest of us can really move to other countries or simply stay here like some meat slave with little opportunities to enjoy some luxuries.” 

/TISG

Reddit users comment on Telegraph article that called SG a ‘playground for ultra-rich Chinese’