The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has completed a mid-quota year review of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) quota. Based on the review, the monthly quota of COEs for Categories B (cars above 1600cc), C (goods vehicles/buses) and E (open) will be increased by 20% for the remaining four months of this quota year (December 2001 to March 2002). The total quota available for the monthly closed tender exercise in December 2001 will be 3,989.

Mid-Quota Year Review

When the Government Parliamentary Committee (Communications) reviewed the Vehicle Quota System in 1999, it recommended that replacement COEs for a quota year should be computed based on the estimated vehicle de-registrations in that calendar year. It also recommended that any adjustments to the COE supply arising from an over- or under-estimation of vehicle de-registrations be made in the next quota year.

As this adjustment factor could be large, LTA has refined the computation methodology for replacement COEs. With this refinement, a mid-quota year review will be undertaken. If the difference between the revised projection and the original projection of vehicle de-registrations for any Category is significant i.e. more than 10% of next year?s estimated COE quota, the difference would be spread out over the remaining months of the current quota year and the next quota year.

By spreading out the adjustment over a longer period, the impact on the quota for each month is reduced. In making the adjustments, a cap of 20% of the month?s COE quota will be imposed to avoid making too drastic an adjustment to the earlier announced quotas. Any excess adjustment beyond the 20% cap will be taken over to the subsequent quota year.

The projected number of vehicle de-registrations for the calendar year 2001 has been updated based on actual de-registration figures for the first 10 months. Based on this, the respective increase in the monthly quotas for these categories are:

* These figures are indicative. The unused quotas in the previous exercise will be added to these quotas to make up the final figures each month.

The COE quotas for the remaining vehicle categories (Categories A and D) will not be adjusted. This is because the earlier estimated de-registration for vehicles in these categories is close to the revised estimate and therefore any correction for next year?s quota is unlikely to be significant.

December 2001 Closed Bidding Exercise

The total quota available for the December 2001 closed tender will be 3,989. This is half of the monthly quota available. The other half will be used for the open bidding exercise to be held on 18 ? 20 December 2001. The breakdown by vehicle category is given below:

NON-TRANSFERABLE CATEGORIES:

TRANSFERABLE CATEGORIES:

The monthly closed tender for vehicle entitlements will open from 9.00 am on Saturday, 1 December 2001, and close at 4.00 pm on Friday, 7 December 2001.

Bid applications can be submitted through the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) of DBS/POSB, OCBC, OUB and UOB, other electronic COE bidding services provided by DBS, OUB and UOB; or via the OUB Phonebank. Members of the public can contact the following banks for more details on their electronic COE bidding facilities:-

Results of this tender are targeted for release on 10 December 2001. A notification letter will be sent to the successful bidder. Upon receipt of the notification letter, a successful bidder may proceed to register his/her vehicle. The COEs for Categories C and E are valid till 14 March 2002 whereas the COEs for the other Categories are valid till 14 June 2002. COEs issued to companies are not transferable.