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 Funkygrad
Your Shout
Bus fares not linked to fuel prices?! |
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Ultra Senior Member
Total Posts: 1140 |
I find this response by the Transport Minister totally off-tangent.
Someone asked with oil prices - which operators traditionally cite as one of their high cost factors - dropping significantly in recent months, why have bus fares not come down in tandem?
Mr Lim explained: " This is because public transport fares are not directly linked to the oil prices - we link it to national factors, like the inflation level in Singapore, and the wage level in all of Singapore."
Hello! When the bus companies want to raise fares, they cited increasing fuel costs and the PTC approved the fare hikes, now you can twist and say no it's not only fuel cost that results in increase in fares? If fuel cost is not the driver for fare hikes, then do not accept that as a reason given by the bus companies lah! Wa lau eh.
I wonder why must public tranport companies be privatised and profit driven. Why not run it like a co-operation.
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SINGAPORE : It would take a further 1.5 percentage point hike in GST if bus and train rides were to be made completely free.
Transport Minister Raymond Lim revealed this at a dialogue session with MacPherson residents on Sunday.
One resident at the session said: "(During) this tough and uncertain period, I hope there will not be an increase in public transport fares."
With leaner times ahead and recovery not yet in sight, public transport fares - always a hot issue - dominated the discussion.
And while Mr Lim is making no promises, he said he understands ground concerns and pointed out that the Public Transport Council will look carefully at economic conditions before considering any increase.
But if things became really bad, will the government consider subsidising public transport fares?
Mr Lim pointed out that even with subsidies, it will still be the public which ends up paying.
He elaborated: "There are only two people who pay when it comes to public transport fares. One, I use - I pay. Or two, I use - you help me subsidise my ride. What happens when you help me subsidise rides? The taxpayer pays."
Going to the other end of the spectrum, if rides were to be made completely free, that would impose a heavy tax burden on the people, as it takes S$1.2 billion just to run the bus and train systems annually.
Mr Lim said : "The money must still come from somewhere. It is 1.5 percentage point increase of your GST. Now it is 7. You want it to be free - GST goes up to 8.5, to run a completely free bus and train system."
But with oil prices - which operators traditionally cite as one of their high cost factors - dropping significantly in recent months, why have bus fares not come down in tandem?
Mr Lim explained: " This is because public transport fares are not directly linked to the oil prices - we link it to national factors, like the inflation level in Singapore, and the wage level in all of Singapore."
Moving to a cheaper form of transport, one resident asked: "I would like to know whether we are having, in the near future, a pro-bicycle government policy, whether can provide shady bicycle tracks all around the island."
For now, Mr Lim said using two-wheelers as a form of transport is good for just intra-town travel. And it cannot be applied uniformly across the island but has to be adapted for different communities.
Apart from Tampines, authorities are also looking at Yishun and Sembawang for pilot cycling projects.
MacPherson is a constituency which has a high number of compact high-rise HDB flats, and a population that has a higher proportion of the elderly above the age of 50 who are more likely to be from the lower household income group.
It is not surprising then it was not just public transport fares but also other cost of living issues that dominated the dialogue session. That included whether costs of goods and services are expected to come down in this recession.
Another topic was that of foreigners working in Singapore. One issue raised was if the policy of letting foreign workers go first should also apply at the management level. Mr Lim pointed out that this differs from company to company, and depends on how badly the particular company needed the special skill sets of those management staff. - CNA
This message was edited by hotbull on 21 Dec 2008 07:48 PM
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Very Senior Member
Total Posts: 754 |
They're highly paid enough, so rest assured that future decisions with regards to tweaking the fares will be made on an extremely sound basis. If they say oil isn't the main reason, then they must be right.
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Very Senior Member
Total Posts: 480 |
so leave the tinkering to them? even if the motives are questionable?
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Ultra Senior Member
Total Posts: 1140 |
I cannot stand the inconsistency in providing justitification to fare hikes. It doesn't reflect well on the government.
And it seems like there's always an excuse to increase price and the government always support price hikes. WTF.
This message was edited by hotbull on 22 Dec 2008 09:36 AM
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Very Senior Member
Total Posts: 589 |
Someone enlighten me.
GST is a government tax levied on consumption.
Bus fares are fees charged by commercial companies.
How would pressures to lower bus fares of commercial companies impact GST?
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Senior Member
Total Posts: 218 |
i'm beginning to miss the "universal" 60cent adult fare trips. LOL  
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Ultra Senior Member
Total Posts: 1091 |
This Raymond Lim person is insulting the intelligence of his audience. Even if revenue had to be raised to cover the cost of subsidizing public transport, there are many other ways of raising that money.
1. Increase the tax on petrol.
2. Increase the road tax.
3. Increase taxes on alcohol/tobacco products.
4. Increase ERP.
5. Etc
The fact that he only suggested raising GST to cover the cost of subsidizing public transport shows that
1. The government has never seriously considered or explored the alternative policy of subsidizing public transport.
Or
2. Even if the government had studied the option of subsidizing public transport, Raymond Lim was not familiar with such a study and was shooting from the hip with his response on TV. In 5 minutes, I could already think of alternative possible ways to raise revenue to offset the cost of the subsidy.
And we pay him a million dollars a year to be the transport minister?
This message was edited by ingersoll2 on 26 Dec 2008 03:38 PM
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Ultra Senior Member
Total Posts: 1140 |
A controversial comment by Transport Minister Raymond Lim raised a storm of criticisms. He had been trying to explain why bus fares had not dropped along with oil price (from US$147 to US$35 a barrel),
He had said: “This is because the public transport fare is not directly linked to oil prices. We link it to national factors, like the inflation and wage levels in the whole of Singapore.”
It contradicted past government – and bus operators’ – explanations that raising fares were justified because of higher fuel costs.
It has again raised questions about whether, collectively, the younger political leadership is capable of rallying the people to face an uncertain world. Seah Chiang Nee
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Senior Member
Total Posts: 247 |
In the ST Forum today:
NO DIRECT LINK TO FUEL PRICES
I REFER to the report, 'Government will try to keep transport costs down' (Dec 22).
Some members of the public have written in to the ministry seeking clarification on the Transport Minister's remarks that public transport fares are pegged to national inflation and wage levels, and not oil prices. As they pointed out that this contradicts the reasons public transport operators gave when they applied for fare increases, we would like to explain how the public transport fare review process works.
Adjustments to public transport fares each year are based on a formula that is pegged to changes in two overall economic indicators, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Wage Index (WI, which measures national average monthly earnings) over the preceding year.
We explicitly decided not to allow operators to pass on their direct costs, such as fuel and wage costs, or to base their fares on these costs. This is to give operators every incentive to operate efficiently, and keep their costs as low as possible. Thus, even though the operators have sought to justify fare increases based on rising fuel prices, the Public Transport Council (PTC) will adjust fares only according to this prescribed formula.
This is why last year, despite a 40 per cent increase in diesel prices, the increase in CPI and WI was only 2.1 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively, leading to an allowable fare adjustment of 3 per cent. As the PTC also made the operators absorb a large part of the increase in transfer rebate, fares went up by only 0.7 per cent in October last year.
In assessing the fare applications, the PTC takes into consideration extenuating circumstances, such as adverse economic conditions and significant deterioration in the affordability of fares. Furthermore, as a reality check on the fares, the PTC compares the operator's return-on-total-assets values against those of other industries with similar risk.
The PTC has used these powers before. In 2001, it rejected applications to raise fares, in view of the economic climate then. In 2007, the PTC turned down the application to raise train fares after assessing that the rail industry had done very well the year before.
We understand commuters' concerns about the affordability of public transport. Early last year, the Land Transport Authority announced the plan to introduce distance-based through fares this year.
As we have seen in last year's fare revision exercise, this initiative has helped to reduce fares for most commuters, particularly those who make frequent transfers. When the PTC next deliberates the fare adjustment for this year, we can expect it to move further towards distance-based through fares.
The fare review process is detailed at www.ptc.gov.sg/publi&papers.asp.
Phua Hooi Boon
Director (Land Transport Division)
Ministry of Transport
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Senior Member
Total Posts: 247 |
A clarification fair enough, still, Raymond Lim's earlier remarks come across as arrogant and insensitive. It's like, "hey, don't b**** and be glad we ain pegging it to fuel prices, because either way you're gonna pay for it."
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Ultra Senior Member
Total Posts: 1140 |
Good news for us students: Bus and MRT fares going to come down because of recession and huge budget!
I think they heard our complaints and are trying peg holes.
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Bus fares and train fares are set to come down, giving commuters the break many have been asking for against a worsening economic situation.
But details of how much fares will be reduced will only be known at the end of February.
The unusual move came just a day after the government unveiled a massive S$20.5 billion Budget, where a big focus was on helping companies cope with costs.
In a statement, Transport Minister Raymond Lim also welcomed the news, saying he understood the concerns of Singaporeans over transport costs in these times.
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Sun 21 Dec 2008 07:46 PM
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