Public parking rates increase = more profits?

Photo by danielfoster437. Licenced under creative commonsPhoto by danielfoster437. Licenced under creative commons

June 23, 2016

Public parking rates to rise

I refer to the article “Public parking rates set to rise after review” (Straits Times, Jun 23).

It states that “The Housing Development Board (HDB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) both confirmed yesterday that an islandwide review of both short-term and season parking schemes is in the works.

This comes just two months after the ministries of National Development and Transport said in Parliament that parking prices would go up, to bring Singapore’s rates in line with those of other global cities.”

“Low wages” also “in line with those of other global cities”?

By the same token, why don’t we try to increase our relatively low wages to be “in line with those of other global cities”?

Already the most costly city to own a car?

We may also need to recognise that the costs of owning a car in Singapore, may already be the highest in the world, with the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), high vehicle and petrol taxes, etc.

Also, Singapore has been ranked as the most expensive city in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

No statistics on revenue and costs?

As to “”Since then, the costs of managing and operating carparks have increased substantially,” said a URA spokesman” – I think an important piece of information that may be missing – is what is the revenue that is derived against the costs of operating the HDB’s 607,000 and URA’s 24,000 car parking spaces?

Leong Sze Hian

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About the Author

Leong
Leong Sze Hian has served as the president of 4 professional bodies, honorary consul of 2 countries, an alumnus of Harvard University, authored 4 books, quoted over 1500 times in the media , has been a radio talkshow host, a newspaper daily columnist, Wharton Fellow, SEACeM Fellow, columnist for theonlinecitizen and Malaysiakini, executive producer of Ilo Ilo (40 international awards), Hotel Mumbai (associate producer), invited to speak more than 200 times in about 40 countries, CIFA advisory board member, founding advisor to the Financial Planning Associations of 2 countries. He has 3 Masters, 2 Bachelors degrees and 13 professional  qualifications.