No separate COE category for private-hire cars: Amy Khor

After more than a year of careful study and several debates in Parliament on the matter, the Government has ultimately decided not to carve out a separate certificate of entitlement (COE) category for private-hire cars owned by businesses.

- Kok Yufeng

"We have studied this carefully and decided not to proceed with such a move," said Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor during the debate on her ministry's budget on March 5.

Instead, the authorities will continue to increase the COE quota for cars and commercial vehicles every quarter until the supply peaks from 2026, Dr Khor said.

This will be done by bringing forward COEs that are guaranteed to expire in future peak supply years to fill the present supply troughs.

An injection of 20,000 additional COEs over the next few years, enabled by evolving travel patterns and the roll-out of the next-generation Electronic Road Pricing system, will also boost supply, she added.

Dr Khor was responding to Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten), who asked whether the authorities would create a separate private-hire car COE category or introduce other measures to manage premiums.

While he gave credit to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) for the steps it has taken so far, including the recent ban on selling private-hire cars to individuals for three years after registration, Mr Lim said the rising COE cost has been a source of great unhappiness for many young couples aspiring to buy a car.