Buck-passing company oBike is at the moment creating more problems in Singapore than solving them.

Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Tuesday, July 3, it is "deeply disappointed" that oBike has "reneged on its earlier commitment to refund customer's deposits and in turn conveniently linked this to potential fees by LTA".

LTA's comments came after oBike founder Shi Yi's claims that the costs imposed by LTA for not clearing the bicycles "might affect available funds" to refund users' deposits.

The costs Shi was referring to are the towing and storage fees levied by LTA, should oBike or its liquidator fail to remove the bicycles by the July 4 deadline and end up having it done by the LTA instead.

oBike made promise

Previously, oBike has released a statement that promised its commitment to return users their deposits.

oBike is responsible for refunding of deposits

According to Channel NewsAsia, LTA said it is "oBike's responsibility to have a concrete plan to refund customers' deposits", and that oBike is responsible for the sourcing for funds to cover the costs it needs to end its operations here properly.

oBike's latest statement effectively passes the buck to LTA by not honouring its commitment.

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A spokesperson from LTA also said:

"oBike further pledged that it would pay for the clean-up of bicycles using funds from its shareholders or other sources, and not user deposits."

He added that the fees imposed on oBike, should LTA step in to remove the bicycles for them, are to "avoid having taxpayers bear the burden of the operator's irresponsible actions".