SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will reallocate an additional 300 Category A Certificates of Entitlement (COE) for October.
This marks a 24 per cent increase in the Category A quota available for the month, LTA said in a news release on Friday (Sep 29).
The two October bidding exercises will see an additional 150 COEs each. The reallocation will be drawn upon the same pool of COEs from guaranteed deregistration of cars with five-year non-extendable COEs.
LTA added that this is to meet anticipated demand from car buyers following the announcement of changes to the Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES) rebates, which aims to encourage the adoption of cleaner cars with lower emissions of carbon, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.
Under the VES, buyers of newly registered cars and taxis may enjoy a rebate off the Additional Registration Fee (ARF), subject to the minimum ARF payable where applicable, or pay a surcharge depending on the VES band of the car or taxi.
The VES Band A1 rebate, which will apply to cars with zero tailpipe emissions such as EVs, will remain at S$25,000 in 2024.
However, the VES Band A2 rebate for cars will be lowered next year to S$5,000 from the current S$15,000. This will impact cars like EVs with high power consumption, most hybrids, and some pure internal combustion engine cars that are smaller and more efficient.
Premiums for Category A cars, or those 1,600cc and below with horsepower not exceeding 130bhp, reached a record high of S$105,000 (US$77,000) in the latest bidding exercise on Sep 20.
The authority previously reallocated an additional 700 Category A COEs to the supply for the period of August to October by bringing forward the distribution of certificates from the future expiry of five-year non-extendable COEs.
There will be no change in quota for the other categories. The next quota announcement for the bidding period of November 2023 to January 2024 will be in October 2023.