Up to 20,000 more COEs to be released from February 2025, says LTA

Up to 20,000 additional Certificate of Entitlements (COE) will be released across all vehicle categories progressively from February next year.

In a media release on Tuesday (Oct 29), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said that the move is possible after studying "evolving" travel patterns in recent years, along with their ability to manage congestion through ERP 2.0.

Total vehicle mileage on the roads have decreased by around six per cent from 2019 to 2023, partly due to an increase in flexible work arrangements since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to LTA.

LTA also observed that in the same period, the rail network has expanded by 18 per cent with the opening of the Thomson-East Coast Line stages one to four.

"Concurrently, our ability to manage congestion is being enhanced through ERP 2.0, which uses the Global Navigation Satellite System technology," said LTA. 

The agency said that they'll be able to introduce new "virtual gantries", which allows for more flexible and responsive congestion management.

ERP 2.0, added LTA, also provides a possible option of introducing distance-based charging in the future, which will be an additional tool to regulate vehicle usage and manage traffic congestion more responsively. 

The last injection of COE quotas occurred between 1997 and 2003, when the government released an additional 10,500 COEs then following the introduction of the ERP system.

In March 2024, Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat told parliament the government would be open to the idea of a one-off increase in the total vehicle population spread over a few years, accompanied by higher usage-based charges. 

Zero car-growth

In a briefing to journalists today (Oct 29), LTA said that even as the additional COEs will be released progressively, the increase in available quotas ahead of the bidding exercises will still depend on the number of deregistered vehicles.

Even with the possibility of increasing the number of vehicles in Singapore over the next few years, the agency emphasised their "car-lite" vision of walking, cycling and riding public transport as the predominant travel modes.

The vehicle population growth rate (VGR) for Categories A, B and D vehicles will be kept at 0 per cent per annum, said LTA.

They added the VGR for vehicles in Category C will remain at 0.25 per annum from 1 February 2025 until 31 January 2028.

Streamlined OBU installation process

Meanwhile, LTA also announced a new booking process to "streamline" the ERP On-Board Unit (OBU) installation process.

Vehicle owners can now book an appointment to install an OBU directly with their preferred authorised workshops without going through LTA's booking portal for appointments or wait for an official notification.

The original original booking portal has been redesigned as an information page to help vehicle owners locate suitable workshops for their vehicle make.

About 150,000 new and existing vehicles have been fitted with the OBU since November 2023, according to LTA.

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chingshijie@asiaone.com