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Forum: Better protection on job security for workers at age 63​

August 12, 2023

I refer to the report on Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon’s response to a query by Sembawang GRC MP Vikram Nair on the rationale for workers who lose their retrenchment benefits entitlement to be entitled only to Employment Assistance Payment (EAP) when they reach 63 (Employment Assistance Payment should not be compared to retrenchment benefits, Aug 3).
I was previously a senior legal officer with a statutory board that retired me when I reached the statutory retirement age of 63 without offering me the option of re-employment on contract under the Retirement and Re-employment Act 1993.
I was shocked by this decision after working in the organisation for more than 18 years, as I had no reason to believe that I was not eligible to be offered re-employment on contract under the Act. No specific reasons were given, except that no suitable position could be found for me in the organisation, and the ones offered to me were not compatible with my experience and qualifications.
As I was already a senior legal officer at the top end of my pay scale, the EAP cap of $14,750 offered to me, presumably to assist me in finding a new job, is small comfort as my monthly take-home pay was higher.
At 63, it would be difficult for me to secure suitable employment commensurate with my experience and qualifications. I would have been better off being a unionised member under a collective agreement, as the employer would have to compensate me with retrenchment benefits of one month’s pay for every year of service, with a cap. Although I was a general branch member of my union, it could not assist me, nor did it succeed in its appeal to the senior management on my behalf.
Under the Act, I would have been entitled to work until 68 years if the employer had offered me re-employment under contract. Although there is a statutory recourse under the Act against the employer, I am not confident if any appeal would succeed.
I support the call for more protection for workers like me, as there is no job security when the employee reaches the statutory retirement age. The consequence of my retirement is no different from an employee being retrenched or having his services terminated.

Winston Chew Choon Teck

 

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"The top countries that granted them citizenship between 2019 and 2021...Singapore was the seventh-most popular destination, with around 7,000 Indians getting the red passport over the same period."

7,000 Indians were given citizenship in Singapore in 3 years.
That is an average 2,333 a year, or 6 a day.
This excludes the tens of thousands given Employment Passes.

Surge in Indians adopting foreign citizenship, highest numbers in more than a decade​

The top countries that granted Indians citizenship between 2019 and 2021 were the US, Canada and Australia. PHOTO: AFP

Rohini Mohan
India Correspondent


AUG 10, 2023

BENGALURU – More than 225,000 Indians gave up their citizenship in 2022, the most in over a decade, according to data from India’s Ministry of External Affairs. This is a spike from the average of around 150,000 a year since 2011.
The top countries that granted them citizenship between 2019 and 2021 were the United States, Canada and Australia, statistics from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs showed in 2022. Singapore was the seventh-most popular destination, with around 7,000 Indians getting the red passport over the same period.
With the world’s largest diaspora population, India can tap overseas networks and wealth, but emigration also leads to talent drain for one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
“Many Indian nationals have chosen to take up foreign citizenship. The government is cognisant of this development and has undertaken a range of initiatives... that would harness their talent at home,” said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in Parliament in July, when the latest numbers were revealed.
“A successful, prosperous and influential diaspora is an advantage for India,” he said, adding that the country’s approach was to tap the diaspora networks for “national gain”.
A World Bank report estimated that remittance flow to India would see a rise of 12 per cent to US$100 billion (S$134.5 billion) in 2023. This estimate includes remittances from overseas Indians who still hold Indian passports.
According to a 2020 report by the Population Division of the United Nations, India had 18 million people living outside their homeland, with the United Arab Emirates, the US and Saudi Arabia hosting the majority.

Indian citizens living abroad are so significant to politics and the economy that the Indian government has attempted since 2020 to find a way to allow them to cast their votes.
But those who take up foreign citizenship must renounce their Indian status, as India does not recognise dual nationality.
Since 2011, more than 1.75 million people have renounced their Indian citizenship for foreign passports. The most popular destination is the US, followed by Canada, Australia and Britain.

In the first six months of 2023, 87,026 have taken up foreign citizenship.
Many more are on their way out soon. Marketing professional Amit (not his real name), 36, and his wife, 32, who works in the entertainment industry in Mumbai, received their permanent residency in Canada earlier in 2023 and will move there soon. It puts them on track to get Canadian citizenship in a few years.
The couple first considered leaving India three years ago, when they saw most of their closest Indian friends living abroad.
“We were also feeling that living in India was not going to become easier any time soon. The quality of life, the public goods, infrastructure, what the city offers, is just not commensurate with your income after a certain point,” said Mr Amit.
He added that the poor roads, unreliable public transport, pollution and severe water shortages defeated even the upper class in Mumbai, the financial hub of India.
He said he had no second thoughts about what was “a practical decision” for the Dink (dual income, no kids) couple.
“Changing my passport is only changing my nationality on paper. My Indian-ness hasn’t changed, except that my civic engagement with the new place may actually count for more than it does in India,” he said, referring to his frustrating attempts in India to participate in social work.


The Straits Times spoke to a dozen Indians who have emigrated. They described their decision to change citizenship as a natural, practical extension of seeking better prospects in their education, career path, or family life.
One high-income overseas Indian said the priorities of developed countries, such as tech innovation in the US and Canada, tend to be more aligned to his, while India, the world’s most populous nation with more than 1.4 billion people, still had to balance its emerging economy with electrifying large swathes of the country and lifting millions out of poverty.
“India is improving of course, but in a developed economy, things work already. I can take a lot more for granted,” said another emigrant, citing the more comfortable housing, greenery and quieter setting for moving to Australia.
All of them requested anonymity, lest they be judged for giving up their Indian citizenship.
Some said they were anxious about talking to the media, in case the Indian government cancelled their Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card (a permanent visa for persons of Indian origin), like it did for British-American writer Aatish Taseer in 2019 allegedly for concealing that he had a Pakistani father.
Mr Taseer, however, said he was estranged from his father, was brought up by his well-known Indian journalist mother, and that his OCI was cancelled over his May 2019 Time article critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A Mumbai-born doctor who became a British citizen in 2019 decided to apply after living there for 16 years.
“The reason was not to get a permanent job or career progression. The reason was mainly family. My son is UK-born and essentially thinks he is British. After 16 years, the UK is my home too, so I felt comfortable changing my nationality,” Dr Kavita (not her real name) said.
“It is also easier to travel to Europe and America with a British passport,” she added, a rationale other overseas Indians in the US and Singapore also cited.
A study by the US-based National Bureau of Economic Research found that nine out of 10 top scorers in the annual entrance examination for admission to India’s top engineering colleges had emigrated.
A third of the top 1,000 scorers, particularly graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), also took this path, first going overseas for higher studies and often staying there for work.
Dr Kavita suggested it was futile to worry about a “brain drain” from India.
“As humans, we take the best opportunities possible… Also, India is a very big country, and it has the talent to share with the world.”

Indeed, it is hard to miss the Indian-origin chief executive officers heading American corporations – such as the Chennai-born Indra Nooyi who headed Pepsi till 2018, Madurai-born IIT Kharagpur graduate Sundar Pichai at Alphabet, IIT Mumbai chemical engineering graduate Raj Subramaniam, who heads FedEx after 30 years at the company, and Micron president Sanjay Mehrotra, who was born in Uttar Pradesh.
For Mr Deepak (not his real name), however, it was the urge “to step off the corporate treadmill” that prompted his move in 2019 to Adelaide, Australia, on a skill-based permanent residency with his wife and middle-schooler son.
“After 20 years in the tech industry, working round the clock with no time for your child or other pursuits, we decided in our 40s to take an unimaginable risk, leave our settled lives and move to Australia. This country prizes work-life balance in a way that the American or Indian corporate space does not,” said the 44-year-old corporate learning and development professional.
Four years in Australia with a permanent residency and on track for citizenship, Mr Deepak said he lives in a rented home earning less than what he did in India, but enjoys “the relaxed pace of life” with no evening calls, lots of outdoor activities, family dinners every night and their creatively inclined son exploring art and writing in school.
Mr Deepak said well-maintained, reliable facilities mean that “the money goes a long way, and we can live a life more comfortable than we had in India”.

 

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Forum: Unpleasant consequences of supermarkets’ plastic bag charge​

AUG 18, 2023


The move by supermarkets to charge for plastic bags is leading to more unsanitary and unhygienic Housing Board estates and rubbish chutes.
In the Toa Payoh HDB estate where I live, unbagged waste is being thrown into rubbish chutes, leading to foul smells. Relatives who live in other estates have the same problem.
Supermarkets and their customers are also impacted by the plastic bag rule. Customers without their own bags and who do not want to pay for the bags can be seen walking home carrying bulky food items. Others resort to stuffing their pockets with the plastic bags meant for packing fresh produce.
At self-service checkout counters, other customers and cashiers have at times given me long, hard stares whenever I carry five to 10 plastic bags during my grocery shopping trips. Once at a supermarket, three cashiers in five minutes accused me of stealing eight plastic shopping bags that I had paid for. They apologised after I showed them my receipt.
Instead of making the world greener, the new plastic move is creating new problems. People are helping themselves to the bags meant for produce, while those who buy the bags are looked on with suspicion.
There is a better solution. Disposable, biodegradable bags made from corn starch and lactic acid have been available since the 1990s. They have much smaller carbon footprints than either plastic or even fabric bags.

Eric J. Brooks

 

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Bus, train fares to rise by up to 11 cents for adults; new $96 concession pass for low-wage workers​

The overall cost of bus and train rides will go up by 7 per cent. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Kenneth Cheng and Lee Nian Tjoe

Sep 18, 2023

SINGAPORE - From Dec 23, public transport fares for adults who pay by card will climb by up to 11 cents, as the overall cost of bus and train rides goes up by 7 per cent.
Adult card fares will increase by 10 cents for journeys of up to 4.2km and 11 cents for rides beyond 4.2km, the Public Transport Council (PTC) said on Monday after it concluded its yearly fare review exercise.
For example, the adult card fare for an MRT ride from Simei to Tanjong Pagar, which costs $1.85 now, will rise to $1.96.
Concessionary fares for seniors, students, people with disabilities and low-wage workers who pay by card will go up by four cents for journeys of up to 4.2km and five cents for longer rides. About two million commuters, or half of Singaporeans, are in this group.
This year’s increase is the steepest since the hike in 2019, when fares also rose by 7 per cent. The 11-cent hike is also the highest on record.
The PTC said fares could have gone up by 22.6 per cent in 2023 – the highest allowable increase since 1998, when the council began using formulas to set a cap on fare changes.
This comprises a 12 per cent increase derived from a new fare formula introduced for the 2023 exercise, as well as a 10.6 per cent hike rolled over from the 2022 exercise, said the PTC.

The 2023 adjustment was spurred largely by a 62.3 per cent rise in energy prices in 2022, as well as growth in core inflation and wages, said the council.
Transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT Trains had applied for the full 22.6 per cent hike in 2023, citing reasons such as higher energy prices, a competitive labour market, as well as a slow and uncertain recovery in ridership.
Public transport ridership remains at about 90 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels.


PTC said it decided against granting the full increase, to keep fares affordable in the present “higher-cost environment”.
The remaining increase of 15.6 per cent will be postponed to future fare review exercises.
PTC said this deferment was possible because the Government is providing an extra $300 million in public transport subsidies in 2024, on top of the more than $2 billion in subsidies it already shells out every year to keep services running.
“The additional government subsidy will help to moderate the level of fare increase needed to keep pace with the higher cost of providing public transport, while keeping fares affordable for commuters,” the council added.

The Ministry of Transport said operators will “have to manage their costs tightly, do more with less, and continue to pay fair wages to their workers”.
At a press conference on Monday to announce the fare changes, PTC chairwoman Janet Ang said it would take time for the deferred fare increase to come down gradually.
If economic conditions improve and wages continue rising, and energy prices and core inflation ease, the hope is that this roll-over would decrease over time, she added.
Fares rose by 2.9 per cent in 2022 and 2.2 per cent in 2021. In 2020, there was a freeze on fares to help commuters cope with the economic impact of Covid-19.
The PTC said on Monday that adults paying cash for bus rides will have to fork out 20 cents more, while concessionary cash fares for students, seniors and people with disabilities will rise by 10 cents.
Less than 1 per cent of commuters pay cash for bus rides.

New monthly concession pass for low-wage workers​

Meanwhile, the Government will introduce a monthly hybrid – or bus and train – concession travel pass for low-wage workers costing $96 from Dec 23. This is $32 off the price of adult monthly travel passes, which will stay unchanged at $128.
The cost of monthly hybrid travel passes for other concessionary groups – including seniors, national servicemen and students – will come down by up to 10 per cent, or between $4.50 and $9.50.
The cost of a monthly concession pass for those with disabilities will also be reduced from $64 to $58 – the same as that for seniors.
These passes allow unlimited travel on all modes of public transport except express buses.


About 60,000 people are expected to benefit from these moves. These include existing holders of monthly passes as well as those expected to buy them, said the PTC.
To help Singaporeans cope with the fare increase, the Government will provide public transport vouchers worth $50 each to resident households with a monthly income of up to $1,600 per person.
These vouchers can be used to top up fare cards or buy monthly passes. In 2022, it made available 600,000 public transport vouchers worth $30 each.
In line with the steeper fare hike in 2023, PTC said it would require SBS Transit and SMRT Trains to make larger contributions to the Public Transport Fund, which helps households cope with fare increases.
SBS Transit will have to contribute 15 per cent of its expected revenue increase, or $3.14 million, and SMRT Trains will have to dish out 30 per cent of the same, or $12.71 million.
PTC said its data shows that fares remain affordable.
On average, households in the 21st to 40th percentile – the average public transport user – spent 1.7 per cent of their monthly income on public transport in 2022, compared with 1.8 per cent in 2021.
Lower-income households in the 11th to 20th percentile spent about 2.4 per cent of their income on public transport in 2022 – down from 2.5 per cent in 2021.
After accounting for fare and wage increases in 2023, households are expected to spend roughly the same proportion of their income on public transport as they did in 2022, said PTC.
Communications manager Amanda Poh, 32, said the fare hike was bound to happen “sooner or later”, given how costs have been rising all around.
While the increase per journey is bearable, she said the expenses do add up.
On the Government stepping in with subsidies to bridge the shortfall between public transport revenues and the cost of running services, transport economist Walter Theseira said the long-term sustainability of this approach would hinge on the Government’s finances.
Higher operating costs cannot be avoided to maintain the level of service commuters expect, added Associate Professor Theseira, who is with the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

 

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SingPost to raise local postage rates by 20 cents from Oct 9​

To manage increase in costs, SingPost will issue a 1st Local stamp booklet of 10 stamps to each household from the end of October. PHOTO: ST FILE

Amanda Lee
Correspondent

Sep 19, 2023

SINGAPORE - From Oct 9, the cost of local standard regular mail will increase by 20 cents, said SingPost on Tuesday.
The rate will be increased to 51 cents, up from 31 cents currently, to “reflect the escalating costs of maintaining the postal service”, it said.
To manage increase in costs, SingPost will issue a 1st Local stamp booklet of 10 stamps to each household from the end of October.
The last significant rate increment was in 2014, when postage costs increased from 22 cents to 30 cents.
“The global structural decline in postal volumes over the last decade brought about by digital disruption has impacted the commercial viability of postal firms globally,” said SingPost.
Between FY2018/19 and FY2022/23, mail volumes declined by more than 40 per cent, it said.
SingPost said that the rate adjustment will help address the loss caused by the persistent decline in postal volumes. This is coupled with costlier labour, utilities, fuel, and higher conveyance expenses.

“This rate increment is necessary for SingPost to continue serving its obligations as Singapore’s public postal licensee while allowing further exploration of a more sustainable postal business model in the long term, balancing the need to remain viable while safeguarding the interests of its shareholders,” it said.
SingPost will also introduce upcoming changes to simplify the domestic postage rate structure, including eliminating the weight criteria to make postal services more user-friendly.
Since 2014, SingPost has been absorbing inflationary costs and essentially kept its postage rates constant, said Ms Neo Su Yin, chief executive officer Singapore of SingPost.
“With the intensifying cost pressures and challenging business landscape, it is inevitable that we raise our prices to remain commercially sustainable so that we can continue providing the essential postal service for the nation,” she said.
Ms Neo also said that SingPost is focused on pursuing its strategic transformation towards eCommerce and logistics to mitigate the persistent decline in postal volumes and explore business growth opportunities.
The statement added that SingPost is working closely with the Infocomm Media Development Authority to conduct a structural review of the postal business and formulate a longer-term strategy to attain commercial sustainability.

 

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Banks to start charging customers for Singdollar cheques by Nov 1​

The move comes amid falling cheque usage in Singapore and, in turn, higher costs of handling cheques. PHOTO: ST FILE

Alyssa Woo
Assistant Business Editor

JUL 28, 2023

SINGAPORE - Seven major banks in Singapore – Citibank, DBS Bank, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and UOB – will begin charging individuals for Singapore dollar-denominated cheques by Nov 1.
Other banks will do so by July 1, 2024.
Charges for US dollar-denominated cheques will also be implemented in phases, though a DBS spokesman said on Friday that the bank will start implementing charges for SGD-denominated and local USD-denominated cheques for both individuals and companies from Nov 1.
This comes amid falling cheque usage in Singapore and, in turn, higher costs of handling cheques, noted the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on Friday.
Cheque transaction volumes here have fallen sharply – by almost 70 per cent in the past six years, from 61 million in 2016 to less than 19 million in 2022.
Correspondingly, the average cost of clearing a cheque has quadrupled since 2016 to 40 cents in 2021. If cheque volumes continue to fall further, that cost is projected to increase to up to $6 by 2025.
It is fast becoming unsustainable for banks to continue absorbing these costs, said MAS and ABS.

Cheque processing costs include cheque clearing costs associated with the cheque truncation system (CTS) and other bank operating costs.
The new charges will vary according to the individual banks.
While MAS intends to eliminate corporate cheques by end-2025, individuals can continue using cheques and cashier orders for the foreseeable future, or at least until the CTS – essentially a cheque clearing system – is completely terminated.

This is to give them time to familiarise themselves with alternative payment methods, including PayNow, Giro and e-wallets, and make a full transition away from cheques and cashier orders.
MAS and ABS will further help to develop appropriate initiatives to assist remaining individual cheque users in their transition to alternative payment methods.
Banks are doing their part too.
OCBC already has in place at all of its 30 personal banking branches the Digital Silvers Programme, which is focused on helping those aged 60 and above learn how to bank and pay digitally. The current programme curriculum, which includes Fast and PayNow, will be updated in early August to include Giro.
DBS has also been working with the Infocomm Media Development Authority since November 2022 to organise digital literacy workshops for the community, with the aim of reaching out to 100,000 Singaporeans and residents. To date, about 16,000 people have participated in these workshops.
There will be another public consultation exercise in 2024 to set out the initiatives and timeline to eliminate individual cheques and terminate the CTS.
By the time these are implemented, individuals can use the electronic deferred payment (EDP) solution – to be launched by end-2025 – to make deferred payment or issue a cashier’s order without the need for cheques. EDP will leverage existing payment solutions like PayNow and Giro.
The first round of public consultation, which was carried out last November and December, found that individuals who were still using cheques did so mainly for property-related transactions.
They were also willing to pay for cheque-processing costs, as such payments tend to be occasional and less frequent.

Individuals whom The Straits Times spoke to said writing cheques offers them an added sense of security.
Public service officer Jackson Wu, 49, writes cheques for routine instalment payments such as housing and vehicle loans, and does not use e-payment options such as PayLah! and PayNow or ATM Nets contactless payment because he does not want to link transactions to his bank accounts.
Mr Wu said: “While such transactions are legitimate, I think there is a chance for the transaction details and e-signature to be hijacked by hackers.”
For other cheque users, it is the difficulty of remembering login details for online payment systems.
“Generally, older folks don’t really remember their logins for the apps. For example, just yesterday, my client couldn’t set up PayNow via his NRIC because he forgot his login details,” said insurance agent Ng Wen Jie, 33, who also wrote a cheque when paying for his house. “Many banks allow Singpass login, but a couple do not.”
The overall number of individuals who use cheques is low, according to the banks.
For Citi Singapore’s retail banking segment, more than 95 per cent of payments are made through digital channels, with cheques accounting for less than 2 per cent of transactions.
Said its spokesman: “Even this number is decreasing steadily by about 20 per cent year to date. Correspondingly, we receive less than 100 requests for cheque book replenishments every month.”
Mr Sunny Quek, OCBC’s head of global consumer financial services, said 97 per cent of the bank’s consumer financial transactions were performed digitally in the first half of 2023.
The number of its digital app users has almost doubled over the last five years.
At DBS, cheque usage among its retail and corporate customers continues to fall by up to 25 per cent every year. DBS and POSB retail customers prefer to make e-payments, with $70 out of every $100 spent paid for digitally.
Ms Adeline Kim, Visa’s country manager for Singapore and Brunei, also sees increasing use of digital payments. She noted that more than 95 per cent of Singapore consumers prefer credit or debit cards as their primary payment method, “a consistent trend across generations from baby boomers to Generation Z”.

Hard stop for corporate cheques​

Like individuals, companies will be charged for SGD-denominated cheques by Nov 1, with charges for USD-denominated cheques being implemented in phases.
This change will make cheque clearing costs more uniform across the banks, as currently the various banks have different charges in place for different denominations.
Banks will also stop issuing cheque books to corporate customers some time before the implementation of the EDP solution, and stop processing all corporate cheques by Jan 1, 2026.

 

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SKH patient buys Panadol via foodpanda after long wait; hospital says it prioritises emergency cases​

TikTok user Jombadok, in a video posted last week, claims that he waited for his painkillers for almost two hours before he decided to order them via foodpanda. PHOTOS: SCREENGRAB FROM TIKTOK

Elaine Lee

Sep 19, 2023

SINGAPORE – Sengkang General Hospital (SKH) says it prioritises patients in emergency cases over the less serious ones, after an inpatient complained on TikTok that he had to buy painkillers via foodpanda after waiting for almost two hours at the hospital for the medicine.
In a Facebook post on Monday, SKH said it was aware of a TikTok video circulating online of a patient ordering Panadol via the food delivery app as a result “of an alleged lack of promptness by the hospital in addressing his needs”.
Addressing the allegation, SKH said it would like to assure the public that the patient’s care team had “rendered the appropriate care” based on his condition.
“SKH is committed to attending to every patient in a timely manner,” it added. “Patients with less acute conditions may sometimes experience longer waiting times compared with those who are being treated for serious urgent and life-threatening emergencies.”
TikTok user Jombadok, in a video posted last week, claims that he waited for his painkillers for almost two hours before he decided to order them via foodpanda. The reason for his hospitalisation is not explained.
“Can you imagine... (I’m) asking for Panadol and I cannot get the medicine from a first-world hospital... it is really ridiculous,” he says in the video.
Filming himself collecting his painkillers from a foodpanda delivery rider at the hospital lobby, he tells the rider, who appears surprised, about his situation. Jombadok does not say how long it took for his delivery to arrive.



He adds that it is his first time warded at SKH and he will be discharging himself from the hospital against medical advice the next day because he is unable to get medication from the hospital.
“No point. I might as well (stay) at home. I have my painkillers at home... (the hospital) is a let-down,” he says in the video.
The Straits Times has reached out to Jombadok and SKH for more information.

 

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S’pore water price to rise by 50 cents per cubic m by 2025; lower-, middle-income families to get help​

Most households will fork out an additional $4 to $9, excluding GST, for their monthly water bills by 2025. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO

Shabana Begum

Sep 27, 2023

SINGAPORE – Water will soon cost consumers an additional 50 cents per cubic m, starting with a 20-cent increase in April 2024 and a 30-cent rise in April 2025.
This means that most households will fork out an additional $4 to $9, excluding GST, for their monthly water bills by 2025, said national water agency PUB on Wednesday.
In 2020, the average monthly consumption of water was 15 cubic m for condominiums and 16.2 cubic m for HDB flats.
Lower- and middle-income households will get help to offset some of the price increase. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong will announce cost-of-living support measures to provide more relief for Singaporean households on Thursday.
The last water price hike of 30 per cent happened in 2017. The upcoming 50-cent rise - bringing the cost of one cubic metre - which is 1,000 litres - of water to $3.24. This is an 18 per cent increase.
The price hike between 1997 and 2000 saw water prices rising by 120 per cent for households.
The upcoming increase comes amid rising living costs, GST hikes and higher transport fares, and the water agency did not take the decision lightly, said a PUB spokesman.

“The water price increase is not popular, but necessary,” the spokesman said.
“We understand that it can draw strong reactions amid the other cost of living pressures. That’s something we are very mindful of, so PUB does not take this decision lightly.”
It has been increasingly more expensive to produce and supply water, PUB said, and there is a need to invest more in local water infrastructure - especially in weather-resilient Newater and desalinated water - to brace for drier days ahead due to climate change.


And Singapore’s water demand, which is currently at about 1.95 million cubic m – or 440 million gallons – each day, is expected to almost double by 2065.

Singapore has four sources of water: imports from Malaysia, water from local catchments, Newater and desalinated seawater.
Pressures from higher energy prices and construction costs have contributed to PUB’s annual operating costs exceeding its revenue in the 2021 and 2022 financial years.
In 2019 and 2020, PUB saw a slight net positive in revenue, owing to the 2017 water price hike.
Electricity tariffs have risen by about 37 per cent, while construction costs have gone up by 35 per cent, with higher increases for specialised works such as tunnelling and pipeline projects through highly urbanised areas.

Due to inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions, the cost of essential chemicals to treat used water, for example, has risen by about 33 per cent. Higher manpower costs have driven maintenance expenses by 18 per cent.
These external cost drivers have worsened the operating deficit significantly in the latest fiscal year, said PUB.
Its spokesman said: “If we were to defer the price increase any further… essentially we would have an even bigger price increase moving forward.”
Rising operational costs and inflation are not affecting Singapore alone.
Between July 2022 and July 2023, the average increase in water-related bills worldwide was 8.2 per cent, the second-highest rise recorded by the Global Water Intelligence, a leading publisher for the international water scene.
By April 2025, three in four households will see an increase of less than $10 in their monthly water bills, with tenants of one to two-room flats paying about $4 more.

Water bills account for less than 2 per cent of an average household’s expenditure.
The majority of households use less than 40 cubic m of water every month. But about 4 per cent of homes exceed 40 cubic m, and they will be charged a higher rate of 70 cents more per cubic m - or a total of $4.39, to discourage water wastage.
As for businesses, about 75 per cent of them will fork out less than $25 more every month with the price hike.
Three in four hawkers will also pay less than $15 more each month. Businesses’ utility bills make up less than 5 per cent of their business costs.
However, businesses will be reminded not to engage in profiteering from the water price hike and relevant government agencies will monitor food prices set by hawker centres and coffee shops, added PUB.

The price hike will be phased over two years to give households and businesses more time to adjust and adopt water conservation measures.
The agency urged businesses to tap the recently enhanced Water Efficiency Fund to set up recycling and water-efficient technologies so that their water usage and bills shrink.
One- to three-room households can redeem $50 in e-vouchers under the Climate Friendly Households Programme to buy water-efficient shower fittings that can help to save water and reduce their bills.

The spokesman said PUB will derive more revenue from the water price increase, and the additional revenue is expected to cover about one-third of its investments in the next few years.
PUB may expand its Newater capacity because there will be more used water to treat as demand grows, and it is more cost-effective than desalination.
By 2025, the price of every cubic m of Newater will also increase by 17 cents to $2.50.
Newater is mainly supplied to wafer fabrication plants, industrial estates and commercial buildings, and less so to households.
By 2065, two-thirds of water demand is expected to come from non-domestic sectors.

 

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Family of four needs $6,426 a month for basic standard of living in S'pore, says study​

The average wage per working parent needed to meet the basic standards of living is $2,906 per month. PHOTO: ST FILE

Tham Yuen-C
Senior Political Correspondent

OCT 8, 2021

SINGAPORE - A family of four, with parents, a pre-teen and a teenager, needs at least $6,426 a month to afford a basic standard of living, a study on household budgets has found.
A family of two, with a single parent and a toddler or pre-schooler, meanwhile, needs $3,218 a month.
But a substantial and concerning proportion of working households in Singapore - about 30 per cent - do not earn enough to meet these needs.
The study was done by National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Its findings were released in the report Minimum Income Standards For Households In Singapore (2021), and were disputed by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in a statement on Friday (Oct 8).
LKYSPP senior research fellow Ng Kok Hoe and NTU head of sociology Teo You Yenn, two of the study's six authors, said that the study on how much people need to achieve a basic standard of living in Singapore has exposed some gaps in society.
Using the figures as a benchmark and comparing them against existing income data as well as public schemes show that some segments of the population are not able to meet their basic needs, added Dr Ng at an event presenting the study's findings held over videoconferencing platform Zoom.

But the MOF said "the conclusions may not be an accurate reflection of basic needs largely due to assumptions used", pointing to the limitations of the Minimum Income Standards (MIS) approach used.
The study defined standard of living as one in which Singaporeans can afford housing, food and clothing, and also have opportunities for education, employment and work-life balance, as well as access to healthcare.
It should also enable a sense of belonging, respect, security and independence and afford the choice to participate in social activities and cultural and religious practices.

Based on this definition that emerged from focus group discussions, researchers then convened more focus groups for people to come up with lists of items people from different stages of life will need.
The researchers went to shops or websites mentioned by the participants to find out the real price of each item. These lists were then combined to form the budget of various configurations of households.
Dr Ng said a critical pillar of the MIS approach is to ensure that each focus group is economically diverse, so the budgets resulting from the discussions are not just for particular segments, say the rich or poor. Instead, these budgets apply universally for all Singaporeans, he added.
A total of 196 participants of different genders, ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds took part in 24 focus group discussions.
This method differs from other methods of assessing needs, which typically depend on experts and household expenditure.
The MOF said the budgets arising from the study were in excess of the basic needs for an average household.

The LKYSPP-NTU team had done a previous study in 2019, focusing on elderly households.
This time, it covered younger households, including those with a single parent with one child aged two to six, and those with parents with two children, one aged seven to 12 and the other aged 13 to 18.
It also updated its findings on households with a single elderly person, by accounting for inflation, among other things.
Adopting the household budgets as benchmarks and comparing them with data on actual income from work, the study found that after taking major taxes and benefits into account, workers earning the equivalent of the median wage in 2020, which stood at $4,534, will make more than enough to cover the needs of the single-parent and two-parent households.
Based on the study, the average wage per working parent needed to meet the basic standards of living is $2,906 per month.
The study's authors suggested that this can be a starting point for a socially acceptable living wage for Singapore, which will allow people to meet their basic needs.
However, the study found that some groups were at risk of falling below this minimum. The youngest workers, as well as those without tertiary education and those in certain low-wage sectors, would fall short if they belonged to these single-parent and two-parent households.
For example, cleaners and labourers take home a median monthly income of only $1,535, while salespeople make $2,345.

For elderly households with one person, basic needs will cost $1,421 a month. PHOTO: ST FILE
The Progressive Wage Model (PWM) and Workfare Income Supplement were also inadequate in helping to make up the difference, with wage levels under these schemes coming up to about 60 per cent of what the single-parent and two-parent households need.
"Clearly, interventions currently available are not enough for working households with children," said Dr Ng.
He added that if such households depend on employment in PWM sectors such as cleaning as their only source of income, they are likely to experience significant financial strain, calling for wage intervention to go further than the PWM currently does.
For elderly households with one person, basic needs will cost $1,421 a month.
Income data suggests that older workers would have just enough to cover this. Workers who are 60 years old and above make a median monthly wage of $2,330.
But elderly people depending on Central Provident Fund payouts may find themselves short, while those needing public assistance would be a long way from achieving a basic standard of living, the study found.
The CPF Basic Retirement Sum, which pays out $800 a month, covers only 56 per cent of what a single elderly person needs. The Silver Support Scheme covers only 11 per cent to 21 per cent, the study found.

While the study offers a scientific benchmark for policymakers to refer to, it does not prescribe a way to help close the gap, said Dr Ng.
He suggested that there were two options, either rebalance the private and public provision of public services such as education and healthcare, or improve wage interventions such as PWM.
The study found that housing, healthcare, education and childcare accounted for a significant proportion of spending for all household types - 28 per cent of the budget for two-parent households, and 39 per cent for single-parent households.
More state funding for such public services, through universal subsidies or direct provision, would help lighten the financial burden on households, he noted.
"What we mustn't do is say we can't move on any of these fronts. If you don't move on any front then people will not have enough," he added.
The study's authors also said the MIS method of constructing household budgets, adopted by countries such as Britain, France, South Africa and Thailand, reflects the lived realities and ordinary habits of people and captures the values and principles that ordinary Singaporeans identify with.
For instance, participants agreed that money should be allocated for contributions at funeral wakes, or birthday presents, but rejected air-conditioners as a necessity.

Participants had agreed that landlines were not needed, since most people use their mobile phones nowadays. PHOTO: ST FILE
They also agreed that land lines were not needed, since most people use their mobile phones nowadays, and that taxi rides are a necessity a few times a week, though cars are not.
Associate Professor Teo said: "The spirit of this project is really about trying to capture how ordinary people think about the basic standard of living in a particular time and... many participants were very articulate in saying that it shouldn't just be about breathing and being alive.
"It's also about thriving, having respect and security and belonging."
The importance of this sense of belonging had come through especially strongly this time around, compared with the first study in 2019, as parents spoke about how children need to be able to do things other children do, so they feel they belong.

That is why the household budgets also included money for them to join their friends at outings outside of school, she added.
Dr Ng said: "It was very meaningful... that people can agree what basic needs in society mean, that people from very different backgrounds agree that there is such a thing called basic needs, agree what it means and looks like...
'This should urge all of us to think about how in policymaking and public deliberation and thinking, we should bring people into it and not think that answers are best produced by narrow groups of elites."

 

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Forum: Seniors living with families disadvantaged during means testing for nursing home subsidies​

SEP 20, 2023

My mum sold her three-room flat years ago to move into my eldest sister’s house to help look after my sister’s children.
Now, my mum has advanced dementia and my sister cannot look after her any more because she herself was recently diagnosed with cancer. She asked a social worker to help admit my mum to a nursing home. To our dismay, my mum was entitled to only 20 per cent subsidy.
The means test took into account the incomes of everyone in the household, including those of my sister’s two children who have just started to work. On the flip side, many of my friends’ parents who live in their own homes can get higher subsidies because there is no income in the household.
Such an approach to determining the amount of subsidy discourages old folk from living with their families. The higher bill is also taxing on young people’s income. After years of looking after her grandchildren, my mother has now become a burden to them.
In cases where a senior has moved into her family’s home, the authorities should look at just the senior’s individual assets to assess how much subsidy that person is entitled to, rather than the incomes of the people living with that person. My mum has no house and no savings.
It is really not easy to look after an advanced-stage dementia patient. I was also shocked to hear that my sister has to wait one or two years before my mum can be admitted to a nursing home.

Shirley Tay Sock Kim

 

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Car COE premiums hit new highs, Open category rises to $144,640​

The COE premium for smaller cars set a new record of $105,000, while the COE premium for larger cars climbed to $140,889. PHOTO: ST FILE

Lee Nian Tjoe
Senior Transport Correspondent

SEP 20, 2023

SINGAPORE - The certificate of entitlement (COE) prices for cars and the Open category hit record highs on Wednesday, spurred by motor dealers rushing to meet year-end targets and take advantage of current tax rebates for electric cars.
The COE premium for cars with engines up to 1,600cc and 130bhp, as well as electric vehicles (EVs) up to 110 kilowatts, was 3.96 per cent higher at $105,000, up from $101,000 at the last tender exercise.
The previous high for smaller-car COE premiums was $103,721, set in the second tender exercise in April this year.
COE premiums for larger and more powerful cars as well as for the Open category set records for the fourth consecutive tender, both breaching the $140,000 mark for the first time.
At $140,889, the large-car COE premium was 4.45 per cent above the previous high of $134,889 set two weeks ago.
The premium for the Open category COE – which can be used for any vehicle type except motorcycles, but ends up being used mostly for bigger cars – also set an all-time high, at $144,640.
This was 5.58 per cent higher than the $137,000 record from the last tender exercise.

The commercial vehicle COE premium nudged up by 1.1 per cent to finish at $83,801, up from $82,889 before.
The COE premium for motorcycles was the only one that dipped. At $10,700, the price was 1.84 per cent lower than the $10,901 posted two weeks ago.
New highs have been set in all categories of COE in 2023, with the exception of motorcycles.

Some car brands had hosted road shows and dangled generous discounts to get more orders since the last tender.
There were 470 unsuccessful bids in total over the two car COE categories, slightly more than the 457 unsuccessful bids seen in the previous round.
A sizeable proportion of these bidders would return for the next tender to secure the needed COEs, suggesting that the upward pressure on prices is not expected to ease.
Mr Ng Choon Wee, group commercial director at Komoco Motors, attributed the high COE premiums to dealers who may be chasing after their year-end sales targets to qualify for incentives.
Calling the record COE premiums “absurd”, Mr Nicholas Wong, who is the general manager of Honda agent Kah Motor, said the surge is also driven by a sense of uncertainty for the new year.
Cars are expected to cost more in the new year. The EV Early Adoption Incentive, which gives rebates of up to $20,000 off vehicle taxes for EVs, ends on Dec 31 this year, and it is unclear what will happen to the scheme.
From Jan 1, 2024, the pollutant thresholds for private cars under the Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES) will be tightened, though details of the revised VES have yet to be announced.
Motor traders say they are assuming that cars with pure internal combustion engines, as opposed to petrol-hybrids or EVs, will be downgraded to a less favourable band under the updated VES. This is expected to make such vehicles harder to sell in the new year as they would likely come with reduced rebates, or even incur higher penalties under the VES.
Associate Professor Walter Theseira, a transport economist at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, noted that the big swings in COE premiums, because of how the COE supply moves in 10-year cycles, is not ideal.
“A stable price would be better for the economy and better reflect the actual demand for car travel,” he said.
“Why should rental-fleet owners get a windfall just because they procured their fleet a few years ago?” he added, referring to how vehicles bought earlier when COE premiums were lower would be worth more at today’s COE prices.
Goldbell Corp board adviser Ng Lee Kwang said: “This COE situation is getting out of hand. This is not good for anybody.”
Mr Ng Lee Kwang, who also teaches transport topics as an adjunct lecturer at Nanyang Institute of Management, warns that cars registered with such expensive COEs would be difficult to sell in the used market when COE premiums eventually come down.
Mr Mohammad Iskandar Tobari, 51, is in no hurry to replace his five-year-old Subaru Forester, which he bought brand new.
The technician, whose 19-year-old daughter has just started taking driving lessons, said: “With car prices so high, I don’t know why she even wants to get a licence.”

 

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Open category COE hits $152,000, large car COE reaches another high​

This is the fifth consecutive time that the COE premium for the Open category has broken records. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

Lee Nian Tjoe
Senior Transport Correspondent

OCT 4, 2023

SINGAPORE – The certificate of entitlement (COE) premium for the Open category breached the $150,000 mark at the latest tender exercise on Wednesday to close at a new all-time high of $152,000.
Industry observers said dealers may be trying to accumulate more Open category COEs to register cars in the remaining two months of the year before rebates are cut from 2024, as such certificates are valid for three months and transferrable.
In addition, dealers are racing to meet their year-end sales targets.
The premium for the Open Category – which can be used for any vehicle type except motorcycles, but ends up being used mostly for bigger cars – surged by 5.09 per cent over the $144,640 record set at the previous tender.
This is the fifth consecutive time this COE category has broken its record.
The COE premium for larger cars with engines above 1,600cc and 130bhp, or more powerful electric vehicles (EVs) above 110 kilowatts, climbed to $146,002, 3.63 per cent above the previous high of $140,889 set two weeks ago.
Smaller car COE ended at $104,000, which was 0.95 per cent lower than the $105,000 record posted at the previous tender.

The commercial vehicle COE premium also edged upwards by 2.5 per cent to finish at $85,900, from $83,801 before.
The COE premium for motorcycles closed at $10,856, 1.46 per cent above the $10,700 before.
The latest result seems to have startled even the motor dealers. When the tender closed at 4pm on Wednesday, the general manager at a dealership wondered out loud: “How is this possible?”

There were 1,039 bids in the COE category for smaller cars and less powerful EVs, compared to an average of less than 900 bids seen in the past four exercises.
Of that number, nearly 200 bids were entered in the final five minutes before the tender closed.

This is the first time since October 2021 that the number of bids broke into four-digits for any type of COE.
It follows an announcement by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Sept 29 that an additional 300 COEs for such cars will be reallocated equally between the two tender exercises in October.
The LTA said it was reallocating the COEs to help “meet anticipated demand from car buyers following the September announcement of changes to the Vehicular Emissions Scheme (VES)”.
With the revision, most hybrids and some of the more powerful EVs will receive $10,000 less in incentives from 2024.
Besides the reduced incentives, VES will also be made stricter with tightened pollutant thresholds.

At the same time, a new testing protocol to qualify cars for sale will kick in from Jan 1, 2024, and it is expected to give a less favourable rating than existing test standards.
Some cars that are currently in the neutral band and receive no incentives will be subjected to a penalty of $15,000 under the new regime.
Motor dealers said this is a significant enough reason to rush to sell affected cars within 2023.
If there was any surge in demand for hybrid cars to get the higher VES rebates before the new year, there was little sign of it at many showrooms, which have been quiet since the last tender exercise.

Mr Nicholas Wong, general manager of Honda agent Kah Motor, attributed the high number of bids recorded to fleet vehicle owners, adding that it would be “quite impossible” for dealers to collect so many orders since the last tender.
Wednesday’s tender is the second last exercise under the current three-month period. The LTA is expected to announce the COE supply for November to January in the coming weeks.
Motor dealers said that even if there would be more COEs available in the coming tenders, the combined pressure of revised VES incentives and the need to meet annual sales targets means it is unlikely that premiums will come down this year.
Ms Corinne Chua, Wearnes Automotive’s managing director for Volvo Cars, said that if motor dealers are anticipating a rush to get the higher incentives before the new year, the COE premium may hit “$160,000 or more.”

 

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Forum: Public transport fare hikes a blow to many​

SEP 23, 2023

The recent announcement to increase the public transport fares by up to 11 cents in December will not be taken kindly (Bus, train fares to rise by up to 11 cents for adults; new $96 concession pass for low-wage workers, Sept 19).
Fares rose by 2.9 per cent in 2022, and this year’s increase is the steepest since the hike in 2019.
With the recent rise in the goods and services tax and price increases due to inflation, people are scrimping in all possible ways. Many are struggling to make ends meet and have been scaling back from eating out or buying expensive items.
They spend only on necessities like food, groceries, medicine, utilities and transport. And public transport is the most affordable way for many to get to work and for outings with the family.
It was reported that the fare hike was due mainly to a rise in energy prices in 2022, as well as higher inflation and wages.
It would also be helpful if the transport operators can reveal the breakdown of their expenses. Why the rush to increase fares at such substantial rates?

Donny Ho Boon Tiong

 

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Forum: More help needed for lower-income families affected by rising prices​

SEP 27, 2023

I understand that this year’s 7 per cent fare hike for bus and train rides is necessary to reflect the rising operating costs incurred by the providers of such essential public services.
Likewise, Singapore Post’s increase of 20 cents to mail a basic letter with effect from Oct 9 is necessary to recover rising costs.
On Jan 1, 2024, the goods and services tax (GST) will increase by 1 percentage point to 9 per cent, primarily to defray ballooning healthcare expenditure.
Singaporeans generally accept and trust that the Government will always act fairly in their best interests.
However, as most Singaporeans continue to struggle and cope with the higher cost of living, one wonders if the rising prices of goods and services might trap us in a vicious circle of unending price increases.
The transport fare and GST increases are likely to trickle down into higher operating costs for all businesses, including hawkers and coffee shop operators, who will then be compelled to pass on the incremental costs by raising their prices to remain profitable and survive.
When will this increasing price spiral end?

It is a sad truth that inflation unfairly hits the low-income families hardest, forcing them to endure much hardship and to make many sacrifices.
Meanwhile, the wealthy are probably less affected by inflation and perhaps even benefit from value appreciation of their properties and assets, resulting in a widening wealth gap and greater social inequality.
Although the Government has been rolling out support measures to help low-income families, we should be mindful that they are still most vulnerable, especially the children who might be deprived of some development opportunities as these families scrimp to stay afloat.
Life can become challenging and stressful in an inflationary environment. With reduced real income and purchasing power, some low-income families are prone to becoming dysfunctional, resulting in domestic conflict and disharmony.
In this context, there is the real danger that the children will fall further behind those from wealthy families.
Hopefully, our policy and decision makers, including political leaders, will bear in mind the struggles of those most adversely impacted by high inflation and find more ways to help them.

Ang Ah Lay

 

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New Tengah residents lament lack of public transport options, long walk to nearest bus stops​

HDB said the keys for about 295, or 12.6 per cent, of the 2,333 units in Plantation Acres and Plantation Grange have been collected as at Sept 26. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Esther Loi

Oct 10, 2023

SINGAPORE - Administrative assistant Chan Si Hui has had no choice but to put off moving into her new flat in Tengah by almost four months, because of the town’s limited public transport options right now.
Despite collecting the keys to her Plantation Grange flat on Aug 30, Ms Chan, 39, is renting another flat elsewhere with her elderly parents. She plans to move in only when a bus stop along Tengah Boulevard, which is closer to her flat, is slated to open in December.
As Ms Chan’s parents, both 75, will be living with her, Ms Chan was worried that the walk to the nearest bus stop – now 15 minutes away by foot – would be too arduous for them.
They would have to get around ongoing work on the Jurong Region MRT line to reach this bus stop at Block 111 in Plantation Acres. There, service 992 – one of two bus routes serving the first two Tengah precincts, Plantation Grange and Plantation Acres – takes residents to Bukit Batok MRT station and bus interchange.
Ms Chan is among dozens of residents of the new “forest” town who are lamenting the inaccessibility of public transport near their new homes. She was behind a survey, done between Sept 7 and Sept 17, that gathered feedback from her estate’s residents on the bus services.
The findings of the survey, which polled 59 residents, were submitted to Hong Kah North MP Amy Khor, as well as the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Housing Board. Among other things, it found that some wanted a direct bus service to Jurong East.
In response to queries from The Straits Times, Dr Khor, who is also Senior Minister of State for Transport, said some infrastructural work, as well as accessibility in Tengah, might be “out of sync for a short while”.

This is because HDB has been handing out keys progressively for completed blocks, instead of waiting for the completion of the entire precinct, owing to construction delays.
HDB told ST that the keys for about 295, or 12.6 per cent, of the 2,333 units in Plantation Acres and Plantation Grange have been collected as at Sept 26.
Dr Khor added: “As the roads in the area are also not completely done up and open, some of the bus stops... in the area will also be completed and open in stages to further improve accessibility.”

With the start of bus service 992 on Sept 24, a temporary shuttle bus service that previously connected Plantation Acres residents to Bukit Batok stopped on Sept 30.
Like Ms Chan, Mr Ken Quek, who is unemployed, noted that it takes him up to 15 minutes to walk from his flat at Block 133C Plantation Grange to the nearest bus stop.
He said he has to walk along Tengah Boulevard and Tengah Drive, instead of taking a direct route through the blocks.
Other residents lamented the lack of public transport options in the area as well.
Mr Chan Yuke Man, who moves into Plantation Grange at the end of December, said he would have to make two bus transfers to take his daughter to St Anthony’s Primary School in Bukit Gombak. The 58-year-old said they could walk to the school within that time.

Responding to ST’s queries, LTA said it plans to improve public transport connectivity for Tengah residents to other areas, including Jurong East, with the completion of more housing developments in the area. More details will be made public in the coming months, it said.
Meanwhile, HDB said it was aware of residents’ concerns but sought their understanding that it would take some time to build up amenities and infrastructure within the new Tengah town, unlike in most other Build-To-Order developments, which are in existing HDB towns.
It added that it has instructed contractors not to park along the roads or block the entrances and exits of housing developments, and is working with agencies to ensure the orderly and safe flow of construction vehicles.
LTA and HDB added that they were working together to maintain a safe walking path for residents travelling to and from the nearest bus stops. Bus service 993, which serves another bus stop farther away along Bukit Batok West Avenue 8, operates to and from Jurong East interchange.
Before the Plantation Plaza Neighbourhood Centre starts operations from the second quarter of 2024, HDB said it would bring in temporary provisions such as vending machines offering hot food at the void deck of Block 111A in Plantation Acres. It will also work with a supermarket operator to deploy a mobile grocery truck service in Tengah by November or early December.

 

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Forum: Consequences of having sky-high COE prices​

Oct 11, 2023

Surely, the Government must be watching with concern the sharp rise in certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums in the past few months.
No doubt it is the Government’s policy to limit the number of COEs to control the vehicle population. The high COE premiums are unavoidable due to the limited number of COEs available for bidding each month.
The consequences of higher COE premiums are:
- The cost of living will rise, causing a ripple effect on the economy and affecting everyone;
- Push factors are created for those in the middle-income groups to leave Singapore for good. This will cause a brain drain in our workforce at the professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) levels.
Some Singaporeans will want the Government to have a new COE category for 3,000cc cars for the rich to compete among themselves and not for them to compete against the middle-income groups in the 2,000cc COE category.
Others may argue that higher COE premiums could serve a common social good when the Government is seen to give higher public transport rebates to the lower-income groups.

The hidden trade-offs cannot be ascertained or determined easily in a dynamic economy with no capital gains tax or estate duty tax for the distribution of wealth, as it could cause the income gap between the rich and the poor to widen further.

Tan Kok Tim

 

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Cheque usage important to older business owners​

Oct 13, 2023

My bank informed me recently that it will charge a processing fee of 75 cents per cheque from Nov 1 and that it will stop providing corporate cheque services in 2025.

This is no small matter for older owners of small and medium-sized enterprises as they manage their cash flow mainly through the use of cheques.

Please give them a choice on this as many of them may not be competent in areas such as English, computers and mobile phones and are concerned about options for them in this age of technology and digitalisation.

Tay Boon Suat

 

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DBS, Citibank banking services resume after hours of disruption on Saturday and Sunday​

In an update on Oct 15, DBS Bank said all its services had returned to normal. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

Sarah Koh

OCT 15, 2023

SINGAPORE – DBS Bank said all of its banking services had resumed on Sunday morning, after more than 12 hours of disruption that began on Saturday afternoon.
In an update on Facebook on Sunday morning, the bank said all its services had returned to normal, including PayLah and digital banking services.
“However, any customer who may still experience difficulties logging in to their accounts via their mobile app can try to log in with digibank online/Internet banking using SMS OTP,” said the update, referring to using one-time passwords.
“We are also aware that some of our customers’ PayNow/Fast transactions were interrupted when the disruption happened, and will be processing these with utmost priority.”

The bank added that customers will be updated on the status of their transactions when processing is completed.
Citibank said in a Facebook post at about 7pm on Saturday that its mobile app and Internet banking services were down.
At around 10am on Sunday, Citibank said in a Facebook post that its mobile app and Internet banking services had “resumed overnight”.


In an update on Sunday morning, a Citi spokesman said: “We extend our deepest apologies for the inconvenience caused by the disruption in our banking services.”
The bank also apologised to customers who were unable to reach Citi employees for assistance, said the spokesman.
He added: “We assure you that we are taking this incident seriously and extend our appreciation to all our customers for your patience and understanding.”

Citibank did not respond to queries from The Straits Times about what caused the disruption.
Issues with the services of both banks began to surface on Saturday afternoon.
The Downdetector website, which tracks service disruptions, had 3,800 people reporting issues with DBS’ services at about 4.10pm, and 279 complaints about Citibank’s services at about 4.40pm.
In a Facebook post at about 6.10pm on Saturday, DBS said its investigations showed that the service disruption was caused by an issue at a data centre, which is also used by other organisations.
Netizens complained on the fuckwarezone forum and commented on the DBS/POSB post on Facebook about being unable to access the bank’s app and website or use their cards to make payments in stores.
DBS customers were also reportedly unable to use the bank’s ATMs in Toa Payoh, Bishan and Sengkang.
On Saturday evening, US data centre operator Equinix told The Straits Times it was aware that a technical issue at one of its data centres impacted some customers’ operations, including DBS, and it is investigating.
In an update on Sunday morning, an Equinix spokesman said the technical issue that occurred on Saturday raised the temperature in the data centre, which impacted some customers’ operations.
“We are conducting a thorough investigation into this event to identify ways we can better meet our customers’ needs,” said the spokesman. “We will further communicate with our customers as more detail becomes available.”

 

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Records set in three COE categories, Open category COE soars to $158,004​

The COE for larger cars with engines above 1,600cc or 130bhp, and electric vehicles above 110kW, ended at $150,001. ST PHOTO: RYAN CHIONG

Lee Nian Tjoe
Senior Transport Correspondent

Oct 18, 2023

SINGAPORE - Certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums reached new highs for the two car categories and the Open category at the latest tender exercise on Wednesday.
The COE for larger cars with engines above 1,600cc or 130bhp, and electric vehicles (EVs) above 110kW, ended at $150,001. This marks a 2.74 per cent increase over $146,002 posted at the previous tender.
The premium for the Open Category – which can be used for any vehicle type except motorcycles, but ends up being used mostly for bigger cars – ended at $158,004, up 3.95 per cent over the $152,000 record set at the previous tender.
This is the sixth consecutive time that records were broken for both the large car and Open COE categories.
The COE premium for smaller cars and EVs climbed 1.92 per cent to $106,000 from $104,000 set two weeks ago. The previous record of $105,000 was set just two tender exercises ago, in September.
Commercial vehicle COE premium ended at $84,790, 1.29 per cent below the $85,900 from two weeks ago. This was the only COE category that did not increase.
Motorcycle COE premium was up 3.18 per cent to end at $11,201 from $10,856.

This was the last tender exercise before the next three-month quota period from November to January, where the COE supply will increase by 12.9 per cent.

 

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PayLah! down for some users, less than a week after DBS banking services were disrupted​

DBS said that access to PayLah! was intermittent. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO

Fatimah Mujibah

Oct 20, 2023

SINGAPORE – Following an outage that lasted more than 12 hours over the weekend, DBS Bank faced another hiccup on Friday morning with customers unable to access online service PayLah!.
In a Facebook post at around 10am, DBS said that access to PayLah! was intermittent. The bank advised its customers to use DBS digibank Scan and Pay, or DBS/POSB debit or credit cards for their payments.
The bank said that those who are able to access PayLah! and are eligible for the DBS 5 Million Hawker Meals cashback will receive their rebate by Friday.
The cashback is an initiative by DBS introduced in February to support hawkers. The $3 discount is available every Friday for the first 100,000 users on their hawker meals islandwide.
“We are resolving the issue. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and seek your understanding,” DBS said.
The Straits Times understands that ATM machines are unaffected.
The Downdetector website, which tracks service disruptions, saw an increase in complaints about DBS at 7.45am.

At about 9am, there were about 397 reports from DBS customers on the website.
A Facebook user named Jerome Fs commented: “Can’t even log in (using) the app. People are waiting for me to make payment while queuing. You know how embarrassing it is? How can we ‘go cashless’ when our technology cannot keep it up?”
Several users also commented on the frequent issues faced by DBS and expressed their disappointment.
The disruption to PayLah! comes after physical ATMs, website and cards were down last Saturday afternoon. All of its banking services resumed on Sunday morning.
DBS said its investigations showed that the service disruption was caused by an issue at a data centre, which is also used by other organisations.
ST has contacted DBS for comment.