Bizarre! Singapore’s entitlement certificate to own car is equal to buying 4 Toyota Camry Hybrids in US
- A car buyer in Singapore must bid for a 'certificate of entitlement' that now costs $106,000, citing post-pandemic recovery.
We often have heard stories where the government has imposed insane taxes on people, but what Singapore is doing may confuse people if they want to own a car or not.
According to a report, filed by news agency Reuters, a car buyer in Singapore must bid for a certificate that now costs $106,000 ( ₹88,23,493) citing post-pandemic recovery -- which has driven up the cost of the city-state's vehicle quota system to all-time highs.
This amount is equivalent to buying four Toyota Camry Hybrids in the United States.
Introduced in 1990, Singapore has a 10-year "certificate of entitlement" (COE) system to control the number of vehicles in the small country. Singapore is home to 5.9 million people and can be driven across in less than an hour.
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This new quota – which is being offered through a bidding process – has even made it the most expensive city in the world to buy a car. Surprisingly, the COE for a large car more than quadrupled from 2020 prices on Wednesday to a record S$146,002 ($106442.99 or ₹88,62,042.54).
Compared with $28,855 in the United States, the new standard Toyota Camry Hybrid currently costs S$251,388 ($183,274.82 or 1,52,58,771.45) in Singapore – including COE, registration fees, and taxes. Apart from this, a small, government-subsidized flat in Singapore costs about S$125,000 ($91,131.45 or ₹75,87,261.25).
Earlier in 2020, when fewer people in Singapore were driving, the price of COEs dropped to about S$30,000 ($21,871.55). But with a post-COVID increase in economic activity, more car purchases took place despite the total number of vehicles on the road being capped at about 950,000. The number of new COEs available depends on how many older cars are deregistered.
Looking at the median annual household salary in Singapore, it is S$121,188 ($88,352.31 or ₹73,55,880.13).
Now, the skyrocketing price has put cars firmly out of reach of most middle-class Singaporeans. Sociologist Tan Ern Ser said this has put a dent in what was the "Singapore Dream" of upward social mobility - having cash, a condominium, and a car.
"There is a need to lower one’s aspiration from achieving the 'good life' to settling with a 'good enough life'," Tan said.
Citing the new income option, some Singaporeans are selling the cars they bought when COE prices were low to make a profit.
One Singaporean Jason Guan (40), an insurance agent and father of two, said he bought his first car, a Toyota Rush, for S$65,000 ($47,388.35 or ₹39,45,375.85) in 2008, including the price of the COE.
Now Guan lives without a car, focusing on other perks that Singapore offers for his family.
"As a family man, it doesn’t affect me much as Singapore still has a good and stable education system. In terms of security, it's still one of the safest countries," he said.
With agency inputs.
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Business NewsEconomyBizarre! Singapore’s entitlement certificate to own car is equal to buying 4 Toyota Camry Hybrids in US
First Published:4 Oct 2023, 03:45 PM IST
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