S$26b in subsidies to be injected into public transport system

SINGAPORE — Subsidies to the tune of S$26 billion will be injected into the public transport system over the next five years.

This is in addition to the S$14 billion in subsidies that have been spent in the past five years, Senior Minister of State (Transport) Josephine Teo told Parliament yesterday. She was responding to a question by Mr Gan Thiam Poh, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, who wanted to know if transport subsidies could be sustained or increased without causing a burden to taxpayers.

Such subsidies are used to fund infrastructure and start-up costs of the rail and bus networks, as well as enhancing service levels for commuters under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme. Without the subsidies, bus commuters would have seen a fare increment of more than 15 cents per journey, Mrs Teo noted.

Also, since last year, the Government has started providing direct fare subsidies to lower-wage workers and people with disabilities.

“As Mr Gan rightly pointed out, while keeping fares affordable, it is also important to ensure that the burden on taxpayers does not become excessive,” Mrs Teo said.

The Ministry of Transport will thus continue to conduct regular transport fare reviews, she added.

In response to another question by Mr Gan on higher operation expenses incurred by transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT, Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim said that last year, the companies incurred cost increases of 11.8 per cent (S$98.6 million) and 3.3 per cent (S$27.6 million), respectively, compared with 2013. MATTHIAS TAY