The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will introduce a five-day grace period for any missed payment of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges.

If payment is made within the grace period, the motorist will not need to pay the S$10 administrative charge.

This grace period will be extended to all motorists from Oct. 1, 2024.

Currently, when a motorist fails to make an ERP payment when they pass a gantry, they will receive a letter in a few days, requiring them to do so along with a S$10 administrative charge.

This charge is levied to cover the costs incurred by the LTA to recover outstanding payments.

According to Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat, about 500,000 such letters are sent out every year.

"So if we can help to bring this number (of letters) down to as low a number as possible — zero will be ideal — I think that will help everyone to save time and save money," he said.

How will the process work?

From Oct. 1, 2024, LTA will first send a SMS notification for missed ERP payments, indicating the five-day grace period.

If the missed payment is not made within this period, LTA will issue a letter to the motorist who must pay the missed payment, along with a S$10 administrative charge.

If the motorist fails to do so, a S$70 fine will be issued.

LTA added that motorists should ensure their mobile number is updated on the Singpass website.

Why is the grace period with no admin charge introduced?

According to LTA, with ERP 2.0, backend processing costs can be reduced.

The On-Board Unit (OBU) will detect and process missed ERP payments directly, as it is satellite-based and linked directly to the backend system, according to Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat.

He noted that at this time, there are about 100,000 vehicles that have installed ERP 2.0.

"We are making good progress on this front and we are on track to completing the installation by 2026," he added.

In addition, the LTA is developing a new feature on the OBU that will notify motorists of any missed ERP payments and facilitate payments.

This new feature will be rolled out in the middle of 2025 with more details to be shared when ready.

Top image via Ministry of Transport