After they made a mistake by
flooding the market with COE, they blame Singaporeans for desiring
to live beyond their means. Not to mention sending counter
insurgency agents to the internet to blame Singaporeans for their
policy failure.
http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Story/STIStory_255322.html
ERP? Aren't COEs meant to check car
population?
ERP? Aren't COEs meant to check car population? <!-- headline
one : end --> <!-- 7 or less paragraphs so show all
paragraphs first --> <!-- story content : start --> I AM
confused and annoyed by policies affecting car ownership in
Singapore. As a motorist, I am of the view that there are more and
more cars on the roads nowadays, so the Government has to set up
more Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries and raise ERP rates to
control traffic.
My question is simple. What happened to the original purpose of
the certificate of entitlement (COE)? Isn't it supposed to be the
ultimate tool to limit the number of cars on the road? If the COE
is doing its job well, why are the roads so choked that the
authorities have 'no choice' but to set up ERP gantries everywhere
to control traffic?
Let's see what went wrong. First, for the past few years, the
number of COEs grew, and car prices tumbled to a low five-figure
sum. Second, car loans stretched to 10 years, with banks and
dealers offering cash-back deals and zero downpayments. Third,
additional registration fee taxes were reduced. The road tax has
also been lowered.
Simply put, the measures made cars cheaper and many people
flocked to buy them - and many of those shouldn't own a car at all.
I estimate at least half the car owners today earn less than $5,000
a month. Why are they buying a car? With ever-increasing oil prices
and inflation, one will soon need to pay more than $1,500 a month
for a small Japanese car, including loan instalments, petrol,
maintenance and repair, parking, road tax, insurance and so on.
And now, the new scheme will allow cash rebates to scrap cars,
in order to turn drivers back to public transport. This is not
wrong, but we are not using the system correctly. In the first
place, we should make it very difficult to own a car, but we are
doing the exact opposite by making it easy for people to own a car
and subsequently 'converting' them back to public transport. This
is moving one step forward and two steps back. Asking a car owner
who has been driving for a decade to convert back to taking buses
is like asking someone who is used to getting water from the tap to
fetch water from a well again.
A better solution is to limit car loans to five years, with a
minimum 50 per cent downpayment. This will weed out thousands of
people who can ill-afford a car. And yes, make the COE useful again
by releasing fewer of them.
Tan Wee Liang
