Committee of Supply 2023 debate, Day 5: Pritam Singh on high motorcycle COE premiums

Measures introduced almost a year ago to try to arrest high motorcycle COE prices have not worked, so would the Land Transport Authority consider further raising the bid deposit to S$2,000 and further reducing the validity period to one month? Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh asked this question in Parliament on Thursday (Mar 2). He also asked if some Open category COEs could be redesignated to motorcycle COEs, as had been done in the past. Mr Singh also brought up an “important but seldom discussed” aspect of high motorcycle COE prices - the largely unregulated motorcycle financing ecosystem. He noted that it is motorcycle traders and sellers who overwhelmingly offer in-house financing and questioned if this creates “a perverse incentive” for them to drive up COE prices, which will then require more financing. Mr Singh asked the Ministry of Transport to look into the matter, so that motorcyclists - almost 70 per cent of whom ride Class 2B motorcycles and likely earn well below the median income - are not “unfairly penalised because of a lack of Government regulation”.