I have an idea about COE in Singapore. Think before shooting my idea to the grave.
COE should be re-vamped to be like a BTO exercise for HDB flats, through balloting, you are allocated your chance of owning a car.
Abolish taxations associated with a car purchase. Instead, incorporate it into the COE of the car.
The premium you pay for owning a car, is dependant on your income group.
If you are of a low income group, you pay less COE of the vehicle you purchase, but it is restricted to vehicles of less than $15k OMV, or goods vehicles.
If you already own a car under your name, the chances of you getting a new car is lesser. (maybe 1st car owners get X2 balloting chances, while current owners get X1 chance)
If you have disposed of all your cars in the past 2 years, your balloting chance is still 1, instead of 2.
If you are under some kind of priority scheme, you get X3-4 balloting chances. (priority = started family, and children studies in schools far away, or parents and you stay far away, or you belong to a low income group, and a lorry / van is your livelihood, and you SERIOUSLY need one NOW!)
HDB's MOP idea can be applied as well; where you are to own the vehicle for at least 2-3 years before selling, otherwise you pay a very high levy / premium.
To sell the vehicle, you could sell it to a 2nd hand car dealer, or to a direct buyer.
Upon selling, the transaction price will only include the OMV (after calculating the depreciated OMV, or a valuation based on age of vehicle and today's inflation) and other conveyance fees applicable.
Remaining COE will be refunded to the person who disposes of the vehicle.
Person who buys the 2nd hand vehicle, will have to pay for the vehicle, any COV (cash over valuation), and a new piece of COE - but this time, since the car has already been registered on the roads, the resale-COE will just be calculated as the tax that the buyer has to pay dependant on his income group. As the vehicle is already on the resale market, it should be a "sure get", and no balloting should be required.
What does this mean?
If the gov can adopt this method of regulating the number of cars on the road, it means:
That they are not purely profit driven. One that looks at the problem and actually tries to implement a measure to solve all the problems, one which does not only look at "you want a car? the more you bid, the more I earn".
Even the poor can afford a car in SG, and that if you are rich, you are not guaranteed a brand new car.
2nd hand car dealers' jobs may be preserved (they may charge a "service fee", at whatever amount they decide upon)
The number of new cars registered may be truly controlled.
This is an idea. Of course it is open to debate and fine tuning, but if you guys who are drawing a handsome minister's pay, do stumble upon this, please strongly consider this idea, and whether or not you guys could implement it, please do consider it genuinely, and not look at it as a loss of revenue.
Cowmybottomsk