Biker chic raps Heng Swee Keat for ‘daylight robbery on citizens’

Blogger and biker chic Vaune Phan has given the Finance Minister, Heng Swee Keat, the middle finger for the changes he made to the Additional Registration Fee (ARF) system for motorcycles.

Under the new ARF system, the 15 per cent ARF rate will stay for motorbikes with an open market value (OMV) of up to S$5,000. But two new tiers were introduced where the subsequent $5,000 of a motorbike’s OMV will incur a 50 per cent ARF, and the remaining OMV (beyond S$10,000) will come with a 100 percent ARF.

According to her blog, Vaughn has been riding motorbikes for the past seven years, and has owned bikes like KTM, Honda and Suzuki. She now rides a Ducati Hypermotard, a Ducati 899 Panigale and a Suzuki DR200 for dirt biking.

Today newspaper reported yesterday that with the changes to the ARF system, the Ducati model, Superbike Panigale R (1,198cc), will increase by more than $27,000. It cost $76,000 as of last month, but will now cost $103,800.

In berating the Finance Minister in what she described as unjustifiable increase, she gave the Minister “the biggest cock award of the year.”

Just in case you can’t see Vaughn’s post, this is what she said.

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We have masked robbers caught and incarcerated, yet we have our finance minister gloriously on TV, executing daylight robbery on citizens who save up hard-earned wages to own a bigger capacity motorcycle to suffice their daily transport/sport/leisure all in one.

After increasing public transport rates, you give a miserable 10-cent discount for every 6 train rides spent, you issue one-off GST vouchers capped at $200 that isn’t even close to covering the increased Water Utilities bill rates, yet you take tens of thousands of dollars from us in an instant, without a damn reason with a new Additional Registered Fee (ARF) of up to 100% of the OMV for bigger motorcycles.