SINGAPORE: A Reddit post from Monday (May 1) spawned a lengthy discussion after a netizen wrote that Singapore’s COE (Certificate of Entitlement) system that allows someone to own and use a car—needs “serious reform.”
u/farrenders wrote in his post that he’s not an expert in the matter, “just a guy that got mad about the system and wanted to rant on Reddit.”
He went on to tell about a newly-married couple expecting their first child later in the year. As they don’t live near the MRT, they chose to get a car.
“But since COE are stupid expensive and all cheap used cars have their COE expire in less than a year. They are kind of out of luck. We obviously still need to limit cars to avoid deadlock traffic. But I find it ridiculous that a new couple needs to fork out ~$100k for the COE just for the right to own a car.”
The post author acknowledged that one can have children without owning a car, “but one can’t deny the convenience of driving 20mins back home from work (rather than an 1hr on public transport) the ease of bringing your kid around without one.”
He added that his only solution is to implement a process by which people can prove they need a car, such as having young children, elders or family members with disabilities, and then being given a COE rebate.
In November last year, the COE for smaller cars ended at $90,589 in the latest tender exercise. The highest it had ever been was $92,100, recorded in January 2013.
The high cost of car ownership in Singapore appears to have struck a nerve with many, judging from the nearly 500 comments the post has received.
One Reddit user agreed that it’s “a very convoluted system,” adding, “Ultimately, in the SG context, we probably have to recognize that a car will be luxury rather than a necessity (even for those who really need), and that affordability is not something we can solve.”
A commenter wrote that his personal favourite solution is “to make COE biddable only by the individual, paid in full upfront and non-transferable (or with a cooldown period upon receiving it).”
“As a parent, nothing beats having a couple of car seats in the car and ready to go whenever I need,” one said.
And when the post author wrote, “Edit: Read some comments and one suggestion everyone seems to suggest is a sort of Ballot System. Any opinion on that? (Just wanna stimulate debate coz I want solutions…),” others had a quick reply.
“You think ballot system will work? I mean just a take a look at the BTO system,” wrote one.
A car owner, a father of two, told the post author that his premise is “plain wrong.”
“If your intention is to buy a car so that the earlier years of transporting kids around is easier, then you only need a car for ~5years. If you only use the cars mainly on weekends, even better, OPC car is available. There are PLENTY of used cars out there for 50-60k for that duration.”
However, the reply that was by far the most upvoted came from someone who agrees with the government’s stance on the COE.
“Owning a car is not a right, it is a privilege, and if you want the privilege, you bloody well pay for it. The money that you spend to buy a car, will be used productively (hopefully) to help people far less well off or pay for infrastructure
This is the government’s position and has ALWAYS been the government’s position and I am completely in agreement with it
Any form of subsidy or assistance will result in lower tax revenue collected or tax revenues being diverted from far more important things. Just so you can own a car. This is not acceptable.”
/TISG