The Government Does Not Make Money From The ERP Increase. So Says Lim Swee Say.

Lim Swee Say claims that the government will not make any money from the ERP increase.

ST June 23, 2008
Govt doesn't make money from ERP
THE CashCard reader in labour chief Lim Swee Say's car beeps four to six times a day. This is because he passes through that many Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries along busy city roads to get to and from work.

He was driving home the point that ERP exists solely to control road congestion and not to enrich government coffers or raise the cost of living for Singaporeans.

Mr Lim was responding to a question at a dialogue on why the Government was raising ERP rates by as much as $2 and adding five new gantries from July7 in a climate of rising inflation.

The new gantries along the banks of the Singapore River bring the total number of gantries islandwide to 65.

Mr Lim said Transport Minister Raymond Lim had told Parliament previously the Government does not make any money from the ERP increase.

The reason: It will collect $70 million a year from the ERP increase, but will lose $110 million due to the 15 per cent reduction in road tax from next month.

That is, in fact, a net loss of $40 million, he said.

This reminds me of what happened in early 2007. The government was discussing its plans to raise GST from 5% to 7% in July 2007.

Back then, the Finance Minister had said that even with the GST increase, the government would suffer a $700,000,000 budget deficit. In other words, the government estimated that even with the GST increase, it would collect $700,000,000 less than what it actually needed, to run the country.

Many Singaporeans were thus persuaded that the GST increase was a necessary evil.

But what happened next?

One year later, it was revealed in Parliament that the government did not have any budget deficit for the 2007/2008 financial year. Quite the opposite - it had a huge budget surplus of $6.45 billion dollars.

In other words, the government had collected $6.45 billion dollars more in taxes than what it actually needed to run the country. The people got suckered again.

For more details, refer to my old post here.

So when Lim Swee Say tells you that the government won't make any money from the ERP increase (and will in fact suffer a $40 million loss), take it with a pinch of salt. Or maybe three big tablespoons of it.

The last time round, our Finance Minister missed his Budget estimate by $7,100,000,000. In percentage terms, what makes you think Swee Say will do any better?

Baca Selengkapnya »»

Up, Up And Away - The ERP Takes Off

Two years ago, I wrote a post entitled Money & Material Things. I mentioned then that I lived in a HDB flat, did not own a car and did not plan to.

Two years later, I still live in the same HDB flat, still do not own a car and still do not plan to. Relatives have given up asking me why Mrs Wang and I, two quite successful & established professionals, do not even aspire to move to a condo or own a humble secondhand car (Mrs Wang is a lawyer).

There are a few reasons. One is that a car is largely unnecessary to our lifestyle. Our HDB flat is two minutes away from an MRT station, which is extremely convenient. Also, the nature of our professional backgrounds means that our offices will almost certainly be in the CBD, and it is quicker for us to get to the CBD by train than by car. Furthermore CBD driving has its own problems, including higher parking costs, heavy road traffic and ERP costs.

Another reason why we don't want to own a car is that in Singapore, car ownership just makes you a rather easy victim for the government's Pay-&-Pay policies.

ST June 17, 2008
ERP charges up at 32 CBD gantries from July 7
Five more new gantries coming up along Singapore River
By Maria Almenoar

THE roads are getting pricier from July 7. Five new gantries, forming a cordon along the Singapore River Line, will go live to regulate the evening traffic flow from 6pm to 8pm, bringing the total number of gantries to 65.

In what is seen as the most extensive revision of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) here since its implementation 10 years ago, another 32 gantries in the Central Business District (CBD), including those around Orchard Road, will also have their charges increased.

Rates are being revised mostly during the evening time slots because speeds have fallen steadily during the home-rush hours.

The Government is going to fix this by doing three things.

The biggest change is that if you pay, you will get to enjoy a smooth flowing ride - which is not always the case now.

Motorists can expect to pay as much as $1 more at existing gantries and $2 at new gantries ....

The above changes are going to cause some loud howls of protest among the public, considering the price of oil nowadays and the inflation situation. Actually, if you had plans to destabilise our society, raising fees at 32 ERP gantries would be a positive first step in the right direction.

(P.S That was just my way of saying that the Transport Minister has a very bad sense of timing. But since I do not drive, I shall not comment any further. Car-driving readers may now proceed to the comment section of my blog).

(P.P.S I invite my driver-readers to share some details of their lifestyle (for example, how often they drive, and from where to where) and also how much they spend on car-related expenses. It might be interesting for such readers to compare notes).

Baca Selengkapnya »»

It Will Become Quite Common To Die Alone & Unnoticed

ST Jan 10, 2008
Man's death goes unnoticed for a year in Sydney

SYDNEY - AN ELDERLY pensioner lay dead in his apartment in Australia's largest city for a year before anyone noticed, officials and news reports said on Thursday.

The body of Jorge Chambe, 64, was found on Tuesday in his single bedroom, government-owned flat in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona when police and firefighters broke in, after concerns about his welfare were finally raised.

Decomposition of the body was advanced and bank records indicated Chambe died about a year earlier, officials said.

'It's amazing,' Detective-Inspector Ian Prye told reporters. 'This guy lives in the suburbs and he dies and no one notices for a year.'

The circumstances of Chambe's death triggered calls for a national strategy to better check on elderly people living alone, and worry that Australians were losing their sense of community.

'How can it happen that a person can die in such a lonely way and no one know?' New South Wales state Housing Minister Matt Brown told the Macquarie Radio network on Thursday.

In news reports, neighbors at the apartment block described Chambe as a quiet man who was friendly but who kept mostly to himself. He had received federal government welfare payments and his rent was paid automatically by direct debit from his bank account.

His mailbox had filled to overflowing, but no one had noticed a smell or other clues that he had died, the reports said. A worried neighbour finally called housing officials on Monday, and authorities broke in when Chambe did not respond.

The above event may seem sad and shocking. However as the years go, we may safely expect such incidents to become increasingly common in developed countries with an aging population. Oh yes, that includes Singapore.

This is the simple consequence of having smaller families, or not having children. The older you grow, the likelier it becomes that you have no relatives at all. You just outlive those who used to be around. This isn’t that difficult, because there weren’t many of them to begin with.

In the 1960s, the average 30-something adult would have, say, one spouse, four children, six siblings, eighteen cousins and too many nephews, nieces and in-laws to easily count.

In 2008, the average 30-something adult would have, say, one or no spouse; one, two or no children; and maybe one or two siblings, each likely to have one, two or no children.

So nowadays, the probability of outliving all your relatives (or all relatives who care about you) is much higher.

During the working years, loneliness is not an issue because working life itself provides a human community comprising bosses, peers, subordinates, clients etc.

Senior citizens, while healthy, can also maintain a social network. They move around on their own, pursue their interests and meet other people (mahjong kaki; qigong group; community club etc).

But over the years, the individual gradually grows older and weaker, and becomes less and less able to participate. He therefore slowly withdraws himself from society. Eventually, he becomes so disconnected from other human beings that he could die (as Jorge Chambe did), and for a whole year, no one would even notice.

To me, Jorge’s story is sad not because he died and his death went unnoticed for a year. The sad part is really more how he must have lived, in the years before he died.

Baca Selengkapnya »»

On Beggars and Hawkers

ST Oct 2, 2007
Rid Orchard Road of beggars and hawkers

ONE cannot help but notice an increasing number of people begging for money and selling tissue paper along Orchard Road.

Also on the rise are illegal hawkers at places such as outside Orchard and Somerset MRT stations, selling anything from mobile-phone covers to roasted chestnuts.

I urge the authorities to take action against this group of people, as they are giving a bad image to spanking clean Orchard Road.

This is especially so as Orchard Road is a major tourist attraction and we wouldn't want tourists and foreigners alike to bring home an image of Orchard Road riddled with sidewalk beggars and illegal hawkers.

Nuryusman Mohamed Ibrahim

Actually the tourists probably find the roasted chestnuts quite interesting. The illegal hawkers add a little local flavour into our otherwise sterile cityscape. Think of the Suan Lum or Chatuchak night markets in Bangkok – they’re always crowded and messy. And always a big hit with tourists.

As for the tissue paper, it's usually sold by some poor blind woman or one-legged man. Mrs Wang is very kind. When she sees such people, she often gives them $5 or $10 for one packet of tissue. These people need our help. If you don't want to help, at least don't cause them to get arrested.

I don't know what this Nuryusman person is thinking. He notices an increasing number of poor people on Orchard Road, and his biggest concern is the bad impression that the tourists may have. For goodness sakes, Nuryusman. Your biggest concern should be for the poor people.

Baca Selengkapnya »»