SINGAPORE — Having a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system with different quotas for different income brackets. Creating a COE system to suit needs of families, giving those with younger children higher bidding chances. Having a car ownership model in which one pays for the distance driven, thus tweaking the country’s Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system to tax on car usage.

These were the suggestions viewers and callers made on the latest episode of VoicesTODAY on Channel 5 last night, in which the topic, Cars: Pay to Use, or Pay to Own, revolved around the Government’s recent announcements to limit car loans and having a tiered tax system for the Additional Registration Fee, the main car tax here.

To ensure equitable car ownership, UniSIM’s Head of Urban Transport Management Park Byung Joon said he was in favour of creating different quotas for different income brackets — similar to a tax system.

He said: “For the lower-income, the COE becomes more affordable, the middle-income may have to pay a bit more and the very rich people will have to pay much much more.”

Dr Park also suggested pegging the COE system to the number of dependents a family has. This means that families with young children below a certain age, elderly parents over a certain age, or larger families can be given “extra points” when bidding for a COE.

Mr Khor Wee Siong, who called in to the show, suggested creating a balloting system based on needs, similar to the one introduced by the Housing and Development Board, where families with young children are given higher priority during bidding.

Those who have multiple cars, or with the means to pay more for one, could bid in a separate category, he added.

Mr Khor said that such a system would ensure greater fairness — something which is currently not seen in the present system in which luxury cars are placed in the same category as economy car makes.

He added: “For luxury cars, I don’t have a problem with it being a bidding system, especially if the rich are bidding against the rich. The present system is not fair because the buyer of a (Toyota) Camry, for example, has to bid against a buyer of a Ferrari for the same COE.”

However, Mr Gabriel Seah, another caller, believes that the current ERP system should be tweaked, as a tax on usage, instead of curbing car ownership.