Singapore shelves family-priority COE scheme, new ride-share category

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has decided against incorporating multiple proposals into its Certificate of Entitlement (COE) review, determining that several concepts would be difficult to administer equitably across the motoring public.

Among the rejected measures was a scheme to give preferential COE allocation to families with children, as well as the creation of a new vehicle category specifically for ride-sharing operators. The authority cited fairness and implementation concerns as reasons for excluding these options from the final COE framework.

The COE system, which has been Singapore's mechanism for managing vehicle ownership since 1990, continues to undergo periodic reviews to ensure its relevance and effectiveness. The latest evaluation focused on whether proposed modifications could be practically applied without creating inequities among different categories of vehicle buyers and owners.

The LTA indicated that while the rejected proposals had merit in addressing specific motoring concerns, the complexities involved in fair implementation outweighed their potential benefits. The authority did not disclose which alternative proposals from the review have been accepted for inclusion in the updated COE system.