New COE quota expands 20%

THERE will be a huge spike in commercial vehicle certificates of entitlement (COEs) from next month as the overall COE quota expands 20.1 per cent to 31,708.

The May to July 2017 COE quota rises for the second straight quarter and leading the increase is Category C for goods vehicles and buses. The number of Cat C COEs soars 573 per cent or almost seven-fold to 2,168 each month for the next three months.

The Land Transport Authority said this was because of the large number of deregistrations in the preceding quarter.

"This clustering was due to the large number of Category C COEs that were renewed in 2007 due to a shortage in the supply of new Euro IV diesel goods vehicles,'' the authority explained in its announcement.

There will also be more Cat D COEs for motorcycles, up 31.1 per cent each month to 907.

There are more Cat E open category COEs as well, up 9.6 per cent to 1,055.

Only the number of Cat A "small car'' and Cat B "big car'' COEs shrinks. There will be 3,797 Cat A COEs each month, down 7.5 per cent, and 2,641 Cat B COEs monthly, down 2.7 per cent.

The next quota announcement for the bidding period of August 2017 to October 2017 will be made in July 2017.