Sky-high COE premiums
October 7th, 2023 | 
Author: 
The ST Senior Transport Correspondent, Christopher Tan, pointed out that private-hire car population has increased 500% since their arrival 10 years ago. In contrast, the private-car population has inched up by a mere 6.4%.
It is therefore true to say that private-hire car operators are major contributors to the sky-high COE premiums.
These operators have the financial muscle to bid high to secure COEs, and having secured them, can pass the cost to the hirers. They also have an incentive to keep COE premium high as a sharp drop would result in them sitting on negative equity, given their huge holding of cars. Also, a sky-high COE premium would drive private-car owners to give up their cars and take private-hire rides. As perverse as it sounds, it makes business sense to keep COE premium high, albeit short term thinking.
Indeed, the few big private-hire players - GRAB, Delgro, Gojek (Temasek linked?) - not only have the financial but monopolistic power, to influence the COE premium.
The original COE system did not conflate premium for private vehicle with premium for commercial vehicle. Thus there is a Commercial Vehicle COE category. When taxi companies bidding for COEs in Category A chased up the premium back in 2012, they were taken out of the bidding process and instead paid the Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP). In this way, commercial interest did not push up premiums for private vehicle owners. (Although I think it is still wrong as it is a loophole around the current 0% vehicle growth policy.)
Private-hire cars are commercial vehicles, period. They, as well as taxis, should be lumped with other commercial vehicles in the Commercial Vehicle COE category to reflect the true cost of doing business, and not “free-riding” in the private-car categories.
Foong Swee Fong
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Posted in 
What Commercial, private, PHV or GRAB?
All ‘daft’ $inkies deserved to be screwed!!! Period.
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Truth be told.
During the initial 10 years of me being in China, it never bothered me to take a cab or public transport to places I wanted to go, because I was under the WRONG impression that cars in China cost as much as those in Sinkieland and had never bothered to check. I was with a mistress in ShengZhen then and everything and place that I cheong was within walking distance also.
It was only after I met my wife and returned to Hubei, then I learned that cars are dirt cheap. Even a good BMW costs only about RMB 200,000 onwards and a cheabo Toyata starts from RMB 80,000. Had this been in Sinkieland, it would have cost 5 times as much, not including the COE. Their version of road tax is only about RMB 300 and of course, no COE.
I was in a better financial position then and without hesitation I bought a cheabo RMB 60,000 car and have been using it to this day, maintained carefully. The reason was certainly not about face, it was convenient as the city that I was in is as large as Sinkieland and my in-laws are 3km away. Besides, China is a HUGE country and there are many places I want to be.
Come to think of it, I really cannot imagine myself paying RMB 1,000,000 or more for a COE and a car just to have face.
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big private-hire players – GRAB, Delgro, Gojek (Temasek linked?), get-go etc. are all bastards…..hope I will never have to patronize any of them…..a vicious cycle for the tru-blue locals most of which are retards that might wake up if their self-harmed hurt enough …..unless they self-eliminate first…..then again they are retards
privatizing transport built with public funding is fundamentally wrong and forcing the public to use it to continually profit from it is incorrigible.
in doing so to keep the retards retarded and worrying about their livelihood strips pap of all the credits it claimed to build singapore and the etc. highground of its governance
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Same thing for motorcycle COEs. Ensure high motorcycle COEs so that you are forced to rent from rental companies to do your deliveries. The winners are the private companies and the losers the ordinary citizens.
You can do the same equation for public housing or just about anything that has a price tag. If you pit individuals against companies, whoever makes the most profits wins; which is none other than our govt.
The simple solution is to stop tying compensation of office holders to the private sector. When you tasked the govt to take care of the people’s welfare and to maximize revenue collection in order to ensure high compensation for office holders, you have a direct conflict of interests. To pay office holders handsomely, you need to boost state revenue collection. To boost state revenue collection, you need to sacrifice the people’s welfare. The cake is only so big, you cannot have a bigger portion without taking away someone’s share.
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Cars are for the rich…
No need to complain…blame yourselves if you need it and cannot afford.
Better to be rich in Singapore ….
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Land area:
Mainland China: 9590000 square kilometres
Sinjiapoor : 719 square kilometres.
Sinjiapooor is really poooor, as compared to mainland China in terms of land area.
They could conduct nuclear tests without having to worry about nuclear fallout and if sinjiapoooor would to copy cat their nuclear weapons development, sinjiapoooor would be doomed and no longer have to worry about sky high COE!
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WOW, 500%. Wow.
Look at the actual numbers lah.
After the 500% increase, the total is only 78,106.
The private car total is 574,473.
The real blame is population increase. The REAL blame is PAP.
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Basic Economics 101. The rapid increase in FTs causes demand, and when supply is limited, prices go up.
Am I wrong?
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The latest:
“ Amos Yee has been released on parole from a prison in the state of Illinois “!
We wish that the United States of America ghamen will deport him back to Singapore, where he was born and bred, to fulfill his national service liability.
Singapore is experiencing a disastrously low fertility rates, size of population, as wanted by some idiots, is shrinking.
We need every available males to do the military drills at Padang or foreign talents would have to be recruited.
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Another war in Middle East.
TRE should have a permanent “latest” place for people to scream whatever latest stuff they want. ??
Tech: Unlike forum where anyone can create a thread, TRE has no such function. However, I think it is a good idea and maybe we can create a thread for ANYONE to post what you recommended and make it permanent?
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GREED/LUST FOR $,POWER AND PRIDE(ARROGANCE,NOT DIGNITY) is THE CAUSE OF MUCH OF THE “WARS”/DISAGREEMENTS(UNPEACEFULNESS) we are witnessing within OUR small FAMILY,SOCIETIES,WITHIN A COUNTRY AND AMONG COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD.
In $IN CITY ,we see families breaking up,people fighting and bullying others,police bashing innocent people and taking sides with RICH N POWERFUL culprits,elderly suicides increasing.
These more so than 25/30 years ago.
WHY?
ARE WE MORE PROGTESSIVE,MORE “CIVILISED”?
MORE “HAPPY N PEACE-LOVING”?
THE LEADER$$$ OUGHT TO BE HONEST WITH THE ANSWER.
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Another glorious day in man made Hell.
So much anguish in such a small nation.
No easy feat.
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“There are some who need a car for their work “?
99%of the jobs in Singapore don’t require car ownership
A minute fraction of the jobs required driving a vehicle.
Lorry drivers, bus drivers, prime movers drivers, taxi drivers……drivers of these categories are provided with vehicles by the companies they work for, car ownership is still not required.
In a strict sense, no private car ownership is absolutely required for any job in Singapore.
Only people who want convenience, privacy and social status and prestige would want to have privately owned cars. So when they cowpeh sky high COE, high price of petrol, parking fees….it would appear that theses are the problems they asked for!
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To increase TFR or retire well in SG, dream on!
As loong as the easy-way-out pappy govt to take more money from people increasing COL, COE, GST, HDB etc, normalcy will give way to lunacy!
Is there HOPE for change?
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They are encouraged to keep increasing costs due to the pineapple win. They have taken it as consent to all rising costs. So it is the voter who has caused this rise. Don’t blame the PAP!
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Unlike private owners, PHV companies can deduct what they spend on COEs as a business expense that can be set off taxable income. Changing the tax treatment of COE spending will go somewhat level the playing field
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/The Sengkang MP underlined that this particularly holds for sectors requiring highly-skilled workers, saying he believes “we needlessly shoot ourselves in the foot by making qualification criteria excessively stringent” only to find out that there are not enough workers to fill positions.
“This, in turn, necessitates hiring from abroad, including those who may possess certifications from institutions that may not be as good as our own,” wrote Assoc Prof Lim, and added, “Why not expand the intake—even if it means taking on students that may seem somewhat weaker, but only by dint of our insanely high academic standards—instead if lamenting a local skills shortage?/
https://theindependent.sg/jamus-lim-resident-shares-concerns-over-migrant-professionals-crowding-out-locals/
It should be the priority of the pappy govt to erect policy to ensure the problem is tackled at the pipeline to specially earmark local students be selected to meet the local skills manpower shortage!
Is there a hope for change? We need the change to reduce the increasing FTrash Rate which will invariably help to reduce the population size & inevitably reduce demand for goods & services & the lunatic increase in costs & prices of HDB flats, cars, essential basic necessities, utilities, etc.
The one & only chance for change is at the coming GE!
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There’s an old saying, “No Justice No Peace”. Israel has kept expanding its settlements and abusing the Palestinians so I feel Israel deserves the primary blame. And the US vetoes any UN censure of Israel’s expansion of the settlements. But if Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to even exist, this creates another problem. Guess some conflicts only end when you wipe out the enemy of peace. Entirely.
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“Cheesepie, cunt, knn, knnccp, cb….” are jargons we frequently come across in this forum.
According to Simon Fraud, people who use them frequently are having personality disorders, their personality development stagnated at oral stage or in between oral and anal stages.
This form of personality normally being characterised by the absence of guilt, responsibility, cognitive capacities. Under all circumstances, they just aspire to be on top, want the most for themselves.
If the supporters of any political parties constitute mostly by people with personality disorder, nothing much could be expected from the party concerned.
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According to “Simon Fraud”, everyone is not thinking or is getting scammed.
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It is very easy to rule Sin. You just need to control money and you control the people’s brain and values. That’s why the strong man sits on the reserve or goods.
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The treatment equation given by our govt to businesses and citizens will never be equal or balanced. The simple truth is businesses can pack up and go if they are treated harshly but citizens got nowhere to go. So, asking for the playing field to be levelled is like asking the MIW to voluntarily donate a part of their salaries to charity or towards low-income citizens. It’ll never happen.
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Talking about personality disorder. Put passengers at risk!
https://theindependent.sg/11yo-gets-clamped-in-bus-door-but-driver-shouts-vulgarities/
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Getting insanely rich is a poor way of running the country.
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show us your calculations
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Go read that ST article shown in the picture, assuming that ST reported correctly, assuming that the gov gave the correct number.
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@Democracy
So correct. There is a saying in China:
好言难劝该死的鬼。
Fitting for most Sinkies.
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COE IS JUST A MACHINERY TO COLLECT MORE MONEY,IT IS NEITHER EFFECTIVE OR FAIR.
Those who buy 2nd Car ,etc,should not be allowed to bid for same “COE” as first-time /first(one utility) car .
They should be assigned and alloted different group of COE,starting with a “FLOOR BID” TO REFLECT more meaningfully the CAR CONTROL POLICY MEASURE.
This applies to MPs n Ministers who want 2nd car,3rd car etc for their family.
Why should youngsters of rich dads be enabled to speed around for fun n frolic when more needy families need a BASIC car to transport their sick elderly n infants around as they cannot afford the IRRATIONAL HIGH COE?
You call this a GOOD PUBLIC POLICY???
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”Two property agents fined for marketing empty BTO flats that didn’t meet 5-year MOP rule”
”while Ms Isabelle Loo was on Tuesday fined $500 and censured for marketing a flat ”
You flout a rule that every sinkie know and was fine $500.
CEA and HDB should give her a bouquet of flowers instead.
Seriously….$500.
HDB knows for a fact that many flats lie empty during MOP—do you really want to catch them?????
Makes a mockery of rules when many flout them.
Many openly.
Agents even dare to advertise that fact.
Sinkieland is a goner.
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4-room HDB sold at $1.3M!
Landed houses barely $3M ?
Housing Policies something wrong for sure.
Too strict on foreigners buying private landed but too lax on foreigners buying HDB.
NEED REFORM.
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In very short period of 6 years, 1 in 4 will be above 65.
Now it is 1 in 5.
Total of 717,000 above 65 in 2023.
” By 2030, more than 550,000 HDB flats will be more than 40 years old.”Ku Swee Yong.
Almost all >65 year old own a housing unit, HDB or private.
Most of their children have their own flats.
When the 85,75 and old seniors passed on, their flats will cause a supply tsunami in the housing market.
It is one issue that papigs do not want you to know.
The tsunami will hit us much sooner than most people think.
Sinkie life expectancy is 84 years.
You have been warned.
Very fast aging population and lease-decay is a REAL thing.
Papigs have no solution.
Buy at your own risk—the property mafia regime will not tell you this.
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@HDB Supply Tsunami:
”Now it is 1 in 5.
Total of 717,000 above 65 in 2023.
” By 2030, more than 550,000 HDB flats will be more than 40 years old.”Ku Swee Yong.”
In 2022, there were around 1.53 million residential dwelling units in Singapore
Give these figures to the property agents that spend their lives hyping the ”rise forever’ of property prices.
SinkieLand has become one BIG property development project.
Every square inch will be used to build HDB or private dwellings.
Where to find the humans to live in them, when 25% of them above 65 year-old.
We will have 1,800,000 housing units in 2030 with a quarter already senior citizen.
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