The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has announced that there will be 11,932 COE quotas for the next quarter from November 2014 to January 2015 - an increase of around 5.3 percent as compared to the allocated COE quotas from August to October 2014.

Due to the slight increase in COE quotas, the overall monthly quota allocations will also see a short spike from 3,777 premiums in the current term to 3,977 in the next.

Cat A COE quotas for cars up to 1,600cc in displacement and carrying no more than 130bhp has increased 22.1 percent from the current 1,143 to 1,396 from November.

Cat B COE quotas for cars with bigger displacement or containing more than 130bhp have increased from 1,010 to 1,138 from November - amounting to an increase of 12.7 percent.

For the Category E, or the Open Category, which ends up mainly being used for cars, the monthly quota will be 527 from November, up from 478 - an increase of 10.3 percent.

Bidding under this allocation will commence with the first COE exercise in November  2014.

With 12 percent of Singapore's total land area already taken up by roads, there is limited scope for any further expansion of the road network. As such, the LTA has revealed that the vehicle population growth will be lowered from the current 0.5 percent to 0.25 percent between February 2015 to January 2018. This figure will be reviewed again in 2017.

The lower vehicle growth rate is not expected to substantially impact the COE supply as this is determined mainly by the number of vehicle deregistrations - a generally rising trend in the coming years as the COEs of many old vehicles expire.

To maintain a more stable supply of COEs in each COE category under a lower vehicle growth rate, the contribution rate to CAT E will also be reduced from the current 15 percent to 10 percent from February 2015 onwards. Currently, 15 percent of COEs from deregistered vehicles in each vehicle category, form the COE quota for the Open Category (CAT E) - which can be used to register vehicles from any COE category.

The LTA has also reported that the number of replacements under the Early Turnover Scheme (ETS) has increased significantly since the scheme's enhancement in March. The total number of deregistrations has not increased significantly but the replacements under ETS have more than tripled, from about 20 percent before the enhancement to 70 percent in the third quarter of 2014.

The next quota announcement for the bidding period of February 2015 to April 2015 will be made next January.