About 13 per cent fewer COEs in the next 6 months

SINGAPORE - The Land Transport Authority (LTA) today said that 3,226 certificates of entitlement (COEs) will be available per month over the next six months.

This is a 12.7 per cent drop from the last six months.

The cut comes largely from the small cars category (Cat A) which records a drop of 36.6 per cent and will now have a monthly quota of just 786, down from the current 1,239.

The Open Category (Cat E) also saw a large cut of about 21.4 per cent which translates to a monthly quota of 485, down from the current 617.

Drivers bidding for certificates for cars of 1,601 cc and above in Cat B will have a slightly larger monthly quota of 701 to bid in. This is up from 699.

An increase is also seen in the goods vehicles and buses category (Cat C) of about 12.85 per cent. The monthly quota has been raised to 360 instead of the current 319.

For the motorcycles category (cat D), the monthly quota is increased to 894 from 820.

The bidding under the new quotas will begin with the August 2012 First Open Bidding Exercise.

LTA said the changes in quota is based on two components including the provision for 1 per cent vehicle growth based on the vehicle population as at Dec 31 last year and the replacement COEs for vehicles de-registered between January and June 2012.

In May 2012, LTA said that it will reduce vehicle growth rate to 1 per cent from August instead of 0.5 per cent as previously announced.

The percentage will then be further reduced to 0.5 per cent from February 2013 to January 2015.

This move comes as an attempt to ease the rising prices of certificates of entitlement (COE).

The next COE quota announcement for the COE bidding period from February 2013 to July 2013 will be made in January 2013.