The Certificate of Entitlement (COE) are classes of categories as part of a quota license for owning a vehicle in Singapore.
[2] The COE system was implemented in 1990 to regulate the number of vehicles on the road and control traffic congestion, especially in a land-constrained country such as Singapore.
On 1 May 1990, the previous transportation unit of Singapore's Public Works Department (PWD) instituted a quota limit to vehicles called the COE, as rising affluence in the country catapulted land transport network usage and previous measure to curb vehicle ownership by simply increasing road taxes was ineffective in controlling vehicle population growth.
limited supply of roads and car parks / parking lots, (with scarce land being managed to have a greater emphasis on providing an adequate supply of homes), along with demand for vehicle ownership spiralling out of control, would result in traffic conditions exceeding the criterion of a healthy road network that is sustainable by developments in land transport infrastructure resulting in gridlock.
Along with a congestion tax called the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP), the COE system is one of many key pillars in Singapore's traffic management strategies that aims to provide a sustainable urban quality of life.
[4][5] In place of the COE and the ERP, the government has encouraged its citizens and tourists alike to take advantage of the extensive public transportation network to get around the country instead, such as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), Light Rail Transit (LRT) or public buses, and to embrace a "car-lite society".
COE biddings starts on the first and third Monday of the month and typically lasts for three days to the following Wednesday.
[10][11] Owners of such vehicles are given financial incentives to do this, which include a Preferential Additional Registration Fee (PARF).
This is in addition to the previous criterion of engine capacity of Cat A cars not exceeding 1600 cubic centimetres.
The review of the COE categories' criteria was because LTA wanted to differentiate and regulate the buying of mass market and premium cars under Cat A in a bid to control COE prices that hovered closer and closer to S$100,000.
It was stopped on Sep 1994, the scheme was replaced by the Off-Peak Car rebate In 1994, academics Winston Koh and David Lee of the National University of Singapore proposed to reform the bidding process.
[4] In 2003, economist Tan Ling Hui of the International Monetary Fund reiterated the idea.
[8] In 2023, with COE prices surging, the idea of percentage bidding resurfaced in the general media.