When LTY was still minister he announced that the expected glut in COE in 2016 will be partially retained to prevent repeat of same cycle in the future. Howeve, lta had recently announced that they will releasing all Coe in full.
It is obvious that govt needs the coe money. At about 5 billions in 2015, it constituted about 10% of the govt revenue. However, with the poor sentiment they know coe will drop. Initially, Coe price was helped by many of those old car owners with coe at 10k changing car making a so called profit from the trade in value of their old car. However, with this group becoming smaller, drop in Coe is inevitable. In fact many able average families with more than 1 car did not get a rePlacement when their 2nd or 3rd cars were scraped. With youngsters not being able to take loan for new cars Coe will crash. So uber and smart and some rental companies came in and mopped up about 3000 coes. but it is not sustainable so come the relaxation of loan. This move should be targeted at those with Coe ar about 30k to change new cars and for those poorer chaps to take loan to take over the n2nd hand car and maintain the Coe from 45 to 50k inorder to meet their revenue target.