Rising premiums for commercial vehicles will hurt consumers

I refer to the report about the increase in Certificate of Entitlement (COE) quotas for cars and the reduction of the quota for commercial vehicles (“Rising premiums for commercial vehicles will ‘hit SMEs hardest’”; July 17).

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has lost its objective and purpose with this round of quotas for the next three months.

COEs were introduced to reduce the vehicle population on the road to keep traffic smooth. If the price of owning a car is kept high, people may be more encouraged to use public transport.

With fewer vehicles on the road, there will also be less pollution.

Yet, with the latest announcement — in which the commercial vehicle category bore the brunt of the quota cuts — it seems that not only are our small and medium enterprises affected, but consumers will also end up as losers.

Many companies will likely raise the prices of their products in response to higher business costs, driving up the cost of living.

The quotas for commercial vehicles — which consist of goods vehicles and buses — should not be reduced.

The LTA should consider introducing — for SMEs and transport companies — more grants to address the replacement cost for any of their vehicles.

This will enable firms to change their lorries and buses without additional costs and, at the same time, there will be fewer old goods vehicles and buses on our roads.