Thursday, July 3, 2008

A terrible idea

The Singapore government has some pretty harebrained ideas at times, but giving car owners the option to exchange their Preferential Additional Registration Fee (PARF) and the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) rebates for cash has bought it to a whole new level.

I know that most Singaporeans will love this new scheme but I don’t. The reason is simple; the change is to encourage motorists to give up their cars and switch to public transport.

Just how does this money encourage people to do that?

I mean what is to stop these people from using these cash rebate and buy new cars? Nothing! If anything, this new policy might increase the car population in Singapore. Does anyone truly think that people will save the money in the bank?

With a large amount of cash on hand, what will most Singaporeans do with it? They will take it and go buy things; things like new cars! In fact, with the new-found liquidity, owners might take longer, heavier loans from finance companies and increased their debts. All in all; this is a terrible, terrible idea.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Harebrains? Hahaha... Well, there's always a certain percentage of such people in every organisation. But I'm sure the government is aware of such possibilities. Still, the ultimate interest isn't really about encouraging more people to take the public transport. If it works, the government can take credit for it. If it doesn't, the government has nothing to lose either. Hey, more people buying cars means more COEs, more ERPs, more income for the government, and that is a good thing to them, because it gives them the excuse to implement these measures, and also keep them employed at the same time. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. In the end, the government will always emerge the winner.

Ghost said...

That's what I think will happen. The car population might exactly increase after this rule

Anonymous said...

aiya.. previously ppl "sell" off their COE to car dealer also mah.. in de process car dealer earn 1-2K fm it, now one less cash cow for them.. btw r u a cr dealer uh??