The Vehicle Quota System in Singapore
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Singapores Vehicle Quota System (VQS), which came into effect in May 1990, is part of a series of measures to optimize traffic flow by managing the growth of vehicle ownership to acceptable levels. Under the VQS, motor vehicles are classified into several categories, with a separate licence quota for each category. For categories A, B, and D, the licence is non-transferable.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) determines the quota for each category every year. In order to register a new vehicle, the would-be-buyer must bid for and obtain a licence, referred to officially as a Certificate of Entitlement (COE). The COEs can be obtained through an auction, the COE electronic Open Bidding System, which is held twice a month (fortnightly). The Quota Premium (QP) represents the price for a COE. The QP is the price of the highest unsuccessful bid plus $1 for that category e.g, if there are 250 in the quota for a particular category for that fortnight, the QP is the bid price of the 251st ranked bid plus $1, which everyone whose bids rank from 1 to 250 pays. Bidders who successfully obtain a COE have to register the vehicle within 3 (for categories C and E) and 6 months (for categories A, B and D) respectively. The COE is valid for 10 years. After this period, the vehicle needs to be deregistered or the COE has to be renewed by paying a Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP), which is the 3 months moving average of the QP.
The Quota Year (QY) starts in May and ends in April of the following year. In the QY 2008, the total quota was originally set at 115,946 COEs, but reduced during the September 2008 mid-quota year review to 110,354. For the QY 2009, the total quota is fixed at 83,789 COEs. This figure takes into account a 1.5% vehicle growth based on the vehicle population as at December 31st, 2008, replacements of vehicles expecting to be deregistered in 2009, and adjustment for any over/under-estimation of vehicle deregistration in the previous year.
The results of the second COE Annual Open Bidding process for February, 2009, are presented in the table below. The total quota available for this tender was set at 4,415 vehicles. Cars and taxis with engines less than 1600 cc were the most popular category with 2,722 received bids for 1,846 COEs and a price of $ 4,460. Category E, an open category for registration of all types of vehicles, shows the highest price with $ 5,889. The PQP for category A vehicles is $ 4,516.
Source: http://www.onemotoring.com.sg
This Vehicle Quota System is part of a wider Transportation Demand Strategy in Singapore. Our new training document on Transportation Demand Management (TDM) provides a comprehensive overview on TDM-approaches and international experiences. Registered SUTP users can download the TDM document from here 9.20 Mb after being logged in. Unregistered visitors click here to register and login to download.
