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1.8% cap on any bus, train fare hike this year
Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

ANY decision this year on raising bus and train fares will be known only in August at the earliest, instead of the usual May announcement in previous years.
And if the Public Transport Council (PTC) approves an increase, fares will go up by 1.8 per cent at the most, a spokesman for the council told The Straits Times.
For most commuters, this could mean an increase similar to last year’s one- to three-cent hike, when the cap on fare increase was set at 1.7 per cent.
The new deadline and the cap on how high fares can go are the result of a change in the formula adopted by the PTC last year to work out bus and train fare increases.
Traditionally, SBS Transit and SMRT submit their applications by May 1, and revisions take effect in July.
But last year, because the PTC was busy adapting to new regulatory powers, the fare adjustment exercise was delayed by three months.
It has decided to stick with the new deadline.
‘Operators will have till August to apply. Henceforth, all adjustments will be from October,’ the PTC spokesman added.
As for the 1.8 per cent cap this year, it is based on a formula that takes into account current economic conditions, average wage increases as well as productivity gains of the public transport companies. It also allows fares to be lowered when the economy is in deep recession.
Both operators declined to say if they will ask for a fare increase, but it remains to be seen whether the planned two-percentage-point rise in goods and services tax (GST) in July will influence the decision.
A two-point rise in GST to 7 per cent translates to about $22 million in additional cost to the two operators.
Singapore introduced GST in 1994, starting with a 3 per cent levy. It was raised to 4 per cent in 2003, and 5 per cent in 2004.
Although GST was never passed on directly to public transport commuters, it is computed indirectly in the fare adjustment formula, which takes inflation – represented by the Consumer Price Index – into consideration.
SMRT spokesman Goh Chee Kong said: ‘The fare adjustment formula takes care of wage increases, Consumer Price Index and productivity. So any increase in GST will be accounted for in the Consumer Price Index.”
In the past two years, the operators cited higher oil prices as the main justification for a fare rise.
A senior transport analyst said GST had never been fully passed on to commuters, but added that ‘the formula will prevail because we are not in a deflationary economy’.
Source: The Straits Times, 23 March 2007

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offtopic
woah!
first time in life
buy one get one free
free spiderman bungee jumpin
singapore flyer
you done us proud
lucky for you
this is not america
or else your karchng tear even
if mr sarjit singh were your best defence attorney@large
civil defence
another realife trainnin for you
wondered when would jackneo make a disaster movie out of this one?
and yes
where were our prince the prime minister?
he too is spiderman class
last hear
he become a hero
rescuing cable car riders
today?
why
too windy har?

How can? how can like this wan?
Did the maintenance team have the competency to maintain well?
Should check everything before operational right?
Daily preventive check got or no got?
Singapore Flyer leh, no joke leh. Got visitors many many leh. like that lose face how cans?

But, no mistake that he was talking down to the audience, such arrogance!

Be humble though YOU ARE PAID SIN $MILLIONS as a minister.

patriot

still dont know there’re so many kiang ELITEs out there,

but as the movie says kiang dio ho, mai kay kiang…

越描越黑

aiyoyo

no matter who he or she is. or no matter how much salary he or she earn.

stta president has say sorry. and we forgive her.

when will you say sorry?

we will forgive you also.

If the transport operators said high oil prices is the “main justification” for asking for fare hikes, then it is linked.

No need to play with words.

he said ‘not directly linked’.

by that, we cannot say that he said it is not linked at all.

to me, as a lay person, it means linked but indirectly.

correction of the me if i of the long.