The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is considering a new scheme that would shift responsibility for deregistered vehicles from their owners to authorised exporters, amid a rise in cases of such vehicles being driven illegally on roads.
Under the proposed Authorised Exporter Scheme (AES), vehicle owners who hand their deregistered cars to authorised persons would no longer have obligations related to the disposal of the vehicles.
The authorised persons would be responsible for handling the deregistered vehicles and proving to LTA that they have been properly disposed of.
LTA is also considering immediately disbursing any residual rebates from the certificate of entitlement (COE) and preferential additional registration fee (PARF) once a vehicle has been properly handed over to the authorised person.
Dealers typically wait between four and seven days for the money to be disbursed, according to motor traders familiar with the process.
Currently, vehicle owners have to inform LTA within 30 days of a vehicle being deregistered that it has been properly disposed of.
A vehicle can be scrapped at an LTA-authorised scrapyard, exported directly from Singapore, or stored at an export processing zone (EPZ) while waiting to be exported.
After the disposal documents are submitted, owners will receive any residual COE and PARF amounts.
However, LTA said it has detected deregistered vehicles being driven on public roads, even after they were declared as exported.
In the first five months of 2026, it investigated 122 cases of deregistered cars on the road. This is nearly double the 75 cases reported in the whole of 2024, and around three times the 39 cases in 2023.
First-time offenders who kept and used a deregistered vehicle may be fined up to $20,000 or imprisoned for up to two years, or both. The penalties are doubled for repeat offenders.
On its webpage announcing the proposed AES, LTA said that under the Road Traffic Act 1961, owners have to prove that their deregistered vehicles are disposed of, and they may still be held liable for false or inaccurate export information submitted on their behalf.
The authority reached out to the motor industry, including the operators of LTA-approved scrapyards and EPZs, on July 30 to seek their feedback on the proposed scheme. A spokesperson said LTA will share more details when ready.
If the scheme is implemented, LTA intends to give industry players a transition period of at least a year to prepare.
Some industry insiders, like Oliver Ong of Accord Motoring, said that wanting to avoid the cost of using EPZs while waiting for export may be a factor behind traders not storing the deregistered vehicles correctly and allowing them to be driven on the roads.
EPZ@Carros, one of three EPZ operators in Singapore, charges a one-time fee of $120 and a monthly fee of $230 to store a deregistered vehicle.
Neo Tiam Ting, director of EPZ@Carros and ThinkOne Group, suggested that shortening the 30-day window for owners to submit their disposal documentation will help prevent deregistered cars from being driven on the road.
Vehicle exporters like Adam Mirza, owner of Prestige Auto Export, said that the Middle East conflict has caused delays in export shipments, incurring additional storage cost.
Mirza’s company currently has 180 cars in EPZ storage, with the vehicles waiting for about a month for a ship to transport them to the Caribbean.
His company exports between 500 and 600 deregistered cars monthly. Having met with LTA over the proposed scheme in July, he is looking forward to its implementation.
Mirza understands that exporters authorised under the scheme could be listed on LTA’s website. This would allow vehicle owners to identify authorised parties to whom they can hand over their deregistered vehicles.
Vehicle deregistrations have been rising in recent years, from 47,575 units in 2022 to 70,748 units in 2025. In the first seven months of 2026, 49,850 vehicles had been deregistered.
Some of these vehicles are dismantled for parts or crushed for recycling, while others are exported as complete vehicles for use overseas.
The call for feedback on the scheme closes on Aug 28, 2026, at 5pm. Those who want to contribute can do so at https://form.gov.sg/68b7a077c87fdb2c9830b4cd
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