5 ways the COE system better ensures social equity in car ownership

Some people will suffer regardless of policy, so why not try these?

Belmont Lay| September 10, 12:28 PM

Come February next year, the COE re-categorisation will kick in. The main aim of moving certain premier and luxury brands of cars from Category A to Category B is to ensure that budget cars can remain affordable for those who need a set of wheels.

As with all policies, the outcome is dubious.

While many Singaporeans aspire to own a car (in fact more than 45% of households own a car), we know that the trend is not sustainable due to our land constraints. But if the aim is to achieve social equity, why not try the following five measures?

1) COE discounts for families with at least two children.

Or if the family is looking for their first car or replacing their current car.

Families have a greater need for cars as they need it to ferry children to school or make more trips together as a family, so they deserve priority.

2) Set aside a separate category of COEs for families with at least two children.

This is to ensure that cars can help make child-rearing a more convenient and manageable task.

And COEs for cars meant for families can be made more affordable if they do not have to compete with taxi companies or singles when it comes to bidding for COEs.

In fact, a new COE category - family car category - was suggested by an MP in the parliament previously.

3) Reduce or scrape Additional Registration Fee for hybrid cars.

This is to make hybrid cars costs approximately the same as normal sedan cars with ARFs.

As we push towards a sustainable future, we should start to popularise hybrid cars.

Right now hybrid car prices are artificially inflated even with a ARF rebate. That is to say we are penalising consumers who might want to keep things a little bit more sustainable than just petrol-based cars.

4) Each household is given a cc cap.

Each househild is given, for example, a 3200cc cap. For every cc above the cap, a $25 charge will be levied.

This measure allows families which really need two cars to be able to get two cars under 1600cc without getting penalised. Anything beyond two 1600cc cars should be taxed because then it would be an issue of why should a family be needing two cars of higher CCs other than basic transportation needs.

5) COEs should not have an expiry date, but run out after certain mileage is clocked.

For example, COEs don't last 10 years but last 250,000km instead.

That way, cars that aren't used often won't really be congesting the roads, just car parks.

Top photo from Flickr

Find Mothership.SG on Facebook and Twitter.