You got to be kidding ?Originally posted by nismoS132:car tax is 100% necessary.
unless you wish to have traffic like bangkok.
infact, i'm more for increasing the costs of owning a car.
We need to look back on the yester-years why COE was introduced. It was based on gov's plan to use EPR-type technology prior to 90's to control car USAGE, NOT ownership. Hence Singaporean bought gov's reasoning that COE is a temporary exercise to control vehicular population. Now over gov back-track on this and admit more than ever, they depend on COE mony to upkeep their extravant spendings for most of 90s.Originally posted by Stevenson101:but i can still accept the rationality behind the CoE. If cars were made cheaper and every tom dick and harry could afford one the traffic jams created would defeat the whole purpose of a vehicle being a transportation device.
If a SIMPLE quota system can benefit only the rich, then let us refine it further to affect the SUPPLY side rather then the DEMAND side of the insatiable and masochistic appetite of Singaporeans to absorb fiscal punishment just to own a car.Originally posted by nismoS132:if we were to do away with the COE and put in a simple quota system then it would become another system controlled by the rich, where they buy the cars in at a low price and sell it to the highest bidder.
But why ?Originally posted by nismoS132:what i would rather is a revamp of the COE system. remove all that crap like arf and parf that artifically inflates the price of a car and created the unique motor insurance market we have.
raise the price of COE to a minimum of 50k for private ownership of cars, 25k for commercial vehicles, let the market decide the price thereafter with no intervention whatsoever from the govt. the COE will entitle a person to own any 1 car for 10 years, after which they will be required to renew the COE. since the COE is now a seperate item from the car, owners will be allowed to change their cars anytime they wish should their budget allow it, for the COE would be a permit to own a car, rather than a permit to own the car.
let COEs be made transferrable, should anybody decide that they do not need a vehicle anymore.
set up a proper open bidding system, with an area allocated specially to display the current bid price real-time with facilities for people to make/change/cancel their bids.
should the number of bids exceed the quota of COEs available, we will continue using the system of using the 50th highest bid as the final price of the COE.
currently, coes are pegged to vehicles. i'd rather that you can buy any car you choose with that 1 COE, than for you to sell your current car together with it's COE to buy another car with an overblown COE. which creates an illusion of great amounts of money moving around.Originally posted by Atobe:I am not sure what you mean in your statement :
" ....for the COE would be a permit to own a car, rather than a permit to own the car " .
This actually does pose the same problem as the COE which although the price is market contorl the amount of COE's per month has a quota!!Originally posted by Atobe:Has the high prices of COE ever affected newer cars being purchased by Singaporeans ?
Even at the peak of COE prices, cars are still being sold - although at only a slightly lower quantities - as there are still desperately crazy Singaporeans, who have far too much money to spend as if there is no tomorrow.
My suggestion of SUPPLY side control is made to allow for an alternative and more effective measure to control the never-ending demand for newer cars – if the Government is interested in actually controlling the car population numbers.
To prevent all the quotas from falling into the hands of one person or one dealership, the quota size for any single category can be made in lots of 100 or 500 or 1000, or anywhere in between. Each different quota with differing quantities can have a MINIMUM bid price, so as to cater to the smaller dealership.
If the MINIMUM bid price is fixed by the Government at $5000, then each quota of 1000 vehicles will already require the successful dealer to have $5million in hand immediately.
Market Forces will determine how each quota lot will arrive at the equilibrium from the MINIMUM base price set by the Government, and which will affect the competitiveness of the selling price for the different makes of cars. The more greedy and desperate a dealer is in bidding a ridiculously high price, it will only cause his cost per car to go up.
Any desperately crazy dealership, who decide on bidding wildly to take up all quotas for all categories, will run the risk of having a large stock of cars with over priced quota rates – all of which can end up as dead stock.
It is doubtful if there is a need for a concern that any single individual or company will pick-up all the available quota in one bid ?
The problem with traffic jams and car parks availability is due to the poor planning and anticipation of development requirements.
If one notice the pattern of Government response to the building of roads, it is basically a “fire fighting” approach, in which the Government will look into the problem only when it arises. There are provisions made, but it will be brought out of the cupboard only when the problems appear.
The ECP, PIE, CTE are cases in point. Each lane of these expressways are narrower then those along the newer TPE, SLE and the AYE.
We have heard of Minister Mah Bow Tan lamenting that when the CTE was opened, it has resulted in massive traffic build-up within two months of its opening. Why is this so ?
It is due to the fact that the housing corridor that it serves has grown at a pace faster then the Planners have anticipated, and when the CTE was planned 4 years will have passed from concept stage, budgetary approval, fund allocation, design, and building completion before it is finally open for use. Four years will result in massive changes to the housing development that contribute to the city bound traffic – with the CTE serving the residents from Sembawang, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Serangoon Gardens and the newer suburban estates of Li Hwan and Tai Keng Gardens, and new estates along Lorong Chuan, Seletar Hills and Bukit Sembawang area.
Has LTA considered the residential developments when planning the CTE ?
By the time the CTE was opened for public use, it is already four years out of date with reality on the ground.
Even along the TPE, there have been instances of late additions of entry and exit points along the TPE, to alleviate the massive jams caused by residents getting home to Senkang, Hougang, and Punggol areas. These exit points seemed to have been “forgotten” or considered non-urgent until the traffic problem blew up.
Road designs are hopelessly arranged, with exit from the highway being made on the fastest lane (Lane 1) – as one can find the exit from PIE towards Clementi – when slow vehicles have to cut into the fast lane, and the fast vehicles have to slow down and get into the lane for slow and heavy vehicles.
With such high road tax, import tax, COE and ERP being levied onto the Singapore car owning population, one can only wonder if the funds collected are being put to effective use – when traffic jams have been occurring continuously.
Lowering the cost of cars will not result in “tons of Singaporeans” rushing to buy the “cheaper” cars, as there is that control mechanism of SUPPLY quota.
In fact, the Government has found the COE system so lucrative that at each COE bidding, the quota allotment has been slowly increasing.
Now is there any truth in land being scarce and for a need to control the car population ?
With all the public transport being in the hands of Government Linked Companies, is it little wonder that car ownership is INTENTIONALLY made to be expensive, so that Singaporeans are forced to depend on Public Transport ?
Who are the shareholders of all the Public Transport Companies ?
Look into the thread – “Temasek Holdings”.
Though I do have to raise tis issue... why does public transport fare be so high and service so unreasonable ?? I believe tat SIngapore is the country where citizen has to pay the most for the use of public transport, considering tat we have to pay so much for cars too. The way they delete off bus routes in Sengkang and Hougang to fill up the seats for North East line is really tyrannical and typical action of monopolising bullies.Ok well ok due to our low income taxable(the basic income tax not the CPF)Our transport is not totally paid for by our goverment.This is also true with medical care and other stuff.In countries like Canada which has the highest income taxt rate of 55%( if i recall correctly)Has very cheap transport,social security(hand outs) and free YES free health care.Meaning if you need braces the goverment pays for it TOTALLY.If you need an operation for a broken bone the goverment pays TOTALLY.Also things like the GST is 5%-15% with simple things like pencils and pens costing $3.(Hence making my canadian and austrialian friends come back and buy things like that)
To make sure they earn money through North East line, they literally force us to travel by MRT. Do we have a choice ? Is it reasonable for us to walk to Orchard rd Is there other transport available ? Before tis I have buses linking directly to the city, having bus stops near to my house. When NE line start, I have to walk all the way to the "nearby' MRT to take the train. Worse still, they even refuse to open Buang Kok Green station to save their money ! The day North East line start is the day where public transport becomes more inconvenient to me (BTW I live in Houguang, next to Buang Kok Green MRT). How can they do such deeds ?
Can public transport companies only care about their income (They r probably one of the companies tat make the most money in singapore now) and totally ignore the inconvenience of the people ? I start to believe tat Gov purposely make it "privatised" so tat watever wickedness these "privatised" companies did, is none of their business. I now had tis feeling tat MPs had such high salaries, can afford their own cars, never take bus and public transport, only look at figures and exclaimed out "looking at statistic, singapore public transport is one of the best bla bla bla...." Bull*%#$ !