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Dear Editor,
According to the news, the validity of the temporary motorcycle Certificate of Entitlement (COE) has been reduced from 6 to 3 months and this will take effect almost immediately, in the next bidding exercise.
This validity reduction coupled with the increase in bid deposit of some 2.4 times shows that the cost of living is indeed going up and motorcyclists who are in need of a bike to earn a living are not spared this high cost of living either.
However, in announcing this new bid deposit, LTA remains silent on the motorcar COE which is seeing runaway COE prices. S$98,000 for a piece of paper. Something is amiss.
In spite of the economic slowdown worldwide due to the pandemic and higher petrol prices, we are still seeing the escalating motorcar COE prices getting even higher with each successive bid.
It is therefore timely for LTA to similarly consider reducing the motorcar COE validity to 3 months, in line with that of motorcycles in the next bidding exercise. Three months is sufficient time for a genuine bidder to buy and register a new car.
The 3-month period will also see fewer COEs ‘floating’ around in the motorcar industry looking for motorcar buyers to park (no pun intended) the certificates.
To address these runaway COE prices for motorcars, LTA should only allow bidding by individual car buyers or in the names of individuals when bidding by proxy.
Bulk bidding by traders should be disallowed, as the COEs are easily traded between one another. It is inevitable that the price of COEs will remain sky-high if bulk bidding is allowed, as the cost of a COE is eventually passed to the car buyer.
To further curb the runaway prices for COEs, the deposit for motorcar COE should be increased much larger than 2.4 times compared to motorcycles to meet the higher prices of motorcars.
At the same time, motorcar loans should be confined strictly to the cost of buying a car and the borrowing limited by one’s income, including credit card and housing debts. Advertisement enticing buyers with ‘down payment of $S5,000 and drive away the car’ should be disallowed.
The cost of the COE should be decoupled from the total car package, as otherwise many new car owners may be overcommitting their expenses on cars.
LTA should speedily implement this recommendation as there may be too many unpaid cars on the road, many with huge financial debts.
Gilbert Tan Hee Khian
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of The Independent Singapore.
https://theindependent.sg/netizen-comments-on-price-increase-of-coe-for-motorcycles/