LTA has lost opportunity to articulate meaningful COE strategy - Bishan-Toa Payoh MP

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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/hri-kumar-slams-coe-tweak-urges-push-cleaner-cars

Use your blain, ok
Use your blaaaaain

The change to the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system announced last week was a “lost opportunity” for the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to “articulate a meaningful strategy or provide a clear vision” that Singaporeans could support, said Member of Parliament (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) Hri Kumar Nair yesterday.

Instead, the move to impose a cap on the engine power of cars under Category A — which would shift certain luxury makes from the small car category into Category B — was “in short, an act of appeasement”, wrote Mr Hri Kumar in a Facebook post.

Last Monday, the LTA announced that cars under Category A of the COE system must have an engine power output of not more than 130 brake horsepower, on top of having engine capacities of not more than 1,600cc. The change, which will kick in from February next year, will bump these cars to Category B.

Mr Hri Kumar argued that “differentiating cars by engine capacities and power output is meaningless”. “Indeed, as some have rightly pointed out, we now disadvantage cars with more efficient engines. How does that make sense?” he questioned.

He added: “Appeasement never works. If a system has no backbone, it will wilt under pressure.”

With COEs controlling the number of cars on the road, the LTA should then “focus on what type of cars we should promote”, suggested Mr Hri Kumar, noting that “very few will disagree that we should encourage cleaner, quieter, more energy-efficient cars”.

“If 1.3L turbo-charged car is cleaner and more efficient than a 1.6L car, should we not encourage more people to buy the former?” he said.