Chee Hong Tat on measures to stabilise COE prices

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will continue to closely monitor traffic conditions and where necessary, adjust Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges to keep traffic congestion in check, said Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat. Replying to MPs’ questions in Parliament on Tuesday (Nov 12), he also made it clear that the injection of up to 20,000 Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) is not linked to the implementation of distance-based charging. Mr Chee said the Government has not made a decision on whether to implement distance-based charging although ERP 2.0 gives it the option to do so. “We will need to study this further, including with the data from ERP 2.0, as there are tradeoffs we need to think through carefully. If we were to proceed with distance-based charging in future, this will give LTA an additional tool to manage congestion and there is scope to consider a further injection of additional COEs in tandem with the implementation of distance-based charging,” he said. All else being equal, an increase in the supply of COEs should help to moderate prices although the impact on prices would also depend on the demand from motorists, he added. Mr Chee also assured the House that LTA has assessed that it would be able to inject up to 20,000 additional COEs from February 2025 over the next few years without the worries of causing traffic gridlock.