Benefiting food centres’ cleaning companies? 

I refer to the article “Chan, your NTUC Foodfare is benefiting cleaning companies” (The Independent, Jun 22).

Total fees of $1,787 monthly excluding rental?

It states that “Blogger Aaron said:

“So here’s the thing, even before you start bidding for rentals, you’ll need to consider the running costs, which are:

$320 – Service & Conservancy Charge
$500 – Table Cleaning Fee
$850 – Dish Washing Fee

Which is a total of $1670, or more accurately, $1786.90, with GST.””

2013 – cleaning & dishwashing fees from as little as $700?

In this connection,  the article “Hawkers may soon outsource dishwashing” (Straits Times, Aug 5, 2013) said “Now, they typically pay cleaners S$200 to S$500 per month to wipe tables and return dirty dishes to the stalls.

Some top up about another S$500 a month for the dishes to be washed. Others do it themselves.

But with central dishwashing, the total cost is estimated to be as high as S$1,000 per month for participating hawkers”.

2013 – cleaning fees increased by as much as 156%?

Also, the monthly cleaning fees that some hawkers pay will increase by as much as 156 per cent, from $240 to $614 (“Hawkers hit out at hike in cleaning fees“, Straits Times, Sep 27, 2013).

From 2012 to now – fees increased by ? %?

So, looking at the total fees of “$1786.90, with GST” now – what is the percentage increase from the average fees in 2012/2013, before the Budget debate 2012′s announcement that public cleaning will be under the new Department of Cleanliness (DPC) under the National Environment Agency (NEA)?

Is it as much as about double the sum? 

Leong Sze Hian