Motorcycle COE System
From 2003 to 2013, there has been a great increase in the number of vehicle in Singapore. According to the official Land Transport Authority (LTA), the number of cars jumped greatly from 405k to 621k and the number of motorcycle increased only from 134k to 144k. With this increase, cars are calculated to be taken up, up to 64% with motorcycle being 15%. Because of such increment, the Certificate of Entitlement premium (COE) for motorcycles has went up to around $4k. Sooner or later, an affordable and cheap scooter will be gone because even the poor who needed them could not pay.
Motorcycle COE updated as at 07 Jan 2015
The LTA is definitely doing the right thing to correct the over-supply of COE, but it might not realise that this approach is actually hurting the lower income group. It is hitting hard on those lower income group that needed a transport to do simple odd jobs. Statistics have shown that almost 73% of the motorcycle are small capacity bikes categorised under class 2B, 200c and below. In addition, this lower income rider tend to get a small cc bikes because they couldn't afford a bigger bike or even a simple car.
The debate for the increasing of the COE of cars have been going on for year within Singaporeans. It has been a hot news and it is still active. However, you dont hear the same cries from the rider, or perhaps the lower income riders. The reason for it is because these people are of the poorer community and their voices won't be as loud as the rich. All in all, should the LTA re-plan and come out with a new design that could not only help Singapore but also the poorer people? What do you think? Comment below and share with us what you really think?