Yeo Ning Hong
Singapore
“The SAF always reviews and enhances its training system to maximise the contributions of NSFs to national defence during their NSF stint. We will continue to ensure that the training syllabus is relevant to the defence needs of Singapore, and NSFs' time in the SAF used meaningfully and efficiently.”
“New recruits will find military training less onerous if they take on the personal responsibility of preparing themselves well physically before enlistment. AUCTION OF #03-06 PEK CHUAN BUILDING 6.”
“Sir, on a point of clarification. I believe Dr Ahmad Mattar had earlier on attributed some comments to me. I just want to clarify that I am not waiting for July to have my views on SBC made known to the Minister for Information and the Arts.”
“Sir, to encourage the new NSmen to maintain the same physical fitness that they have achieved while they were in full-time National Service, Mindef will increase the IPPT pass standards for new NSmen who ROD on or after 1st April to the same level that they attained when they were NSF.”
“Sir, I do not think Mr Chiam has any clue whatsoever about what is involved in basic military training. It is not fitness. It is the acquiring of basic military skills, to know how to fight, to know how to ensure that you do not get killed.”
“Sir, Mr Chiam would make a most popular Member of Parliament in Kuwait - if only they had a Parliament in Kuwait. That is exactly the sort of situation that had brought the Kuwaitis the disaster they had a year and a half ago, when people are only interested in having a better life and are not prepared to make the effort to ensure that th…”
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“Sir, Mr Chiam is entitled to his point of view. What we have done is to structure the recognition for the reservists' contributions in a manner that expresses the nation's appreciation. It is a symbolic gesture. The amount of money is a matter of opinion, whether it is large or otherwise. But giving recognition through a monetary system need not necessarily make mercenaries out of our people. Sir, mercenaries are professional soldiers who fight in foreign armies, not our own citizens being paid or given monetary recognition. Indeed, armies all over the world pay their soldiers. That does not make all the soldiers of the world mercenaries. We give allowances to our national servicemen. Is Mr Chiam therefore saying that we should not do that? Sir, Dr John Chen suggests that, because Mr Chiam said that he is not in favour of this system, we should not make the tax relief available to reservists in Potong Pasir. I do not think we should do that. I do not believe that Mr Chiam speaks for the reservists in Potong Pasir. But if there should be any reservist in Potong Pasir who shares Mr Chiam's point of view, he can easily ---”
“Mr Chiam may not be aware of the fact that we are already making allowances of all sorts to our reservists. We give the Key Appointment Holders a Key Appointment Holder's allowance. For those in command, we also have a command allowance. For others, we have a service allowance. And for all the reservists, we have a make-up pay. Is Mr Chiam therefore suggesting that we take away all these allowances because money is involved?”
“And we are going to give the tax relief to reservists over a 40-year period, ie, from the age of 20, and if they continue working until they are well past 60. If Mr Leong were to do some calculations, he will appreciate that the relief that we are giving is not insignificant. Sir, Mr Chiam has said that the tax relief is too small, which does suggest that if it were bigger he would have given it his full support. Yet, at the same time, he says that we should not give any monetary reward, any monetary recognition, because in so doing, we make mercenaries out of our reservists. Is that right?”
“Sir, a number of Members have spoken on the tax relief for reservists. I want to briefly respond to some of the points. Firstly, Mr Leong Horn Kee suggested that instead of the $1,000 tax relief for active reservists and $500 for non-active reservists, we change to a different system of giving a flat rate of $100 and $50. There are many different ways of providing a tax relief. The flat rate is one way. The method that we proposed is another. MINDEF has looked into this problem carefully over the last year. I prefer the method that we proposed for a number of reasons. Firstly, the proposal that we have is symbolic. It shows very clearly Government's deep appreciation and gratitude to the reservists for the sacrifices that they have made, and for the contributions that they will continue to make to the nation's wellbeing, by providing peace and security. These are the essentials. These are the foundations upon which the nation is able to progress and to prosper. Sir, the method that we proposed is also simple and comes closest to what has been considered by the RECORD Committee and recommended by the reservists. If Mr Leong were to look into the details and the numbers, he will probably share the conclusion that we have arrived at, namely, the MINDEF proposal is much more beneficial to reservists in the long run. As the years go by, and as the incomes of reservists increase, the amount of relief that they will get will increase. In other words, the tax that they will pay will be diminished by a bigger margin than the flat rate of $50 or $100. Indeed, if the workers were to receive a pay increase of about 7% per year on the average, over a 10-year period, there will be a doubling of their income.”
“Sir, under the vehicle quota system, all registered vehicles in Singapore must have a valid Certificate of Entitlement (COE). This is necessary to control the vehicle population in Singapore. When a vehicle owner deregisters his vehicle and surrenders his COE to the ROV, this COE is then added back to the pool which is made available for future tenders. Vehicle owners will be given a rebate of the cost of their COE for any period that the vehicle is not used, during the term of the COE. This would normally be due to the deregistration of the vehicle before the expiry of the COE. Such rebate would also apply to the temporary laying-up of the vehicle. This rebate is calculated on a prorated basis, according to the number of full calendar months that the vehicle is not used. The rebate would be given when the COE is surrendered back to the ROV. In effect, a vehicle that is laid-up temporarily will enjoy a rebate of both the road tax as well as the COE cost for the period laid up. EXCESSIVE ANTIBIOTICS IN IMPORTED POULTRY (Increase in statutory penalty) 7. Mr Chin Harn Tong asked the Minister for National Development how does his Ministry ensure that imported poultry do not contain excessive antibiotics and whether he will consider increasing the statutory penalty to deter persons from circumventing or trying to circumvent the ban on excessive antibiotics.”
“Sir, the cost of all services eventually ends up with the users in one form or another. We have been investing very heavily in infrastructure in Telecom for many years already. Even though subscribers of telephone and telecommunication services have to pay for all these, because of productivity gains, we have succeeded in lowering rates instead of increasing them. ARCHITECTS BILL Order for Second Reading read.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, Singapore Telecom has been replacing the existing copper wire network of telephone lines to households with optical fibre cables on an on-going basis. It is currently planning the laying of optical fibres to all the HDB housing estates. A pilot trial will be launched later this year beginning with Paya Lebar and Changi. The entire project will cost us more than $3,200 million when completed and it will take quite a number of years to get there. Fibre optics and telecommunication technologies are changing and developing very rapidly all the time. It is important for us in Telecom to closely moni tor such developments such that as and when advanced telecommunication services become relevant to us in Singapore, especially when Singapore is developing as a major financial and information centre, Telecom will be able to move quickly to ensure that those services are available to the public.”
“We give it back to users of other services whenever productivity gains permit us to do so. EXTENSION OF MRT SYSTEM TO JOHOR BARU 3. Dr Wang Kai Yuen asked the Minister for Communications, with the extension of the Mass Rapid Transit system to Woodlands, whether an extension to Johor Baru is under consideration and, if so, when will that be implemented.”
“Sir, the Member may recall that the increases have indeed been spread over a number of years.”
“Sir, I am unable to answer the question because the statutory boards in the Ministry are very large businesses with approximately $3 1/2 billion worth of revenue. That embraces a lot of activities. It is not possible for me at this stage to say which item involves an element of cross-subsidy. These have got to be studied individually. But I have stated the general principle that, wherever possible, if there are clear-cut cost centres, the cost for that operation should be recovered.”
“Government recommends a rate for all workers in Government service. But for statutory boards which performed well, they are given some additional leeway. Some formula of sorts, I believe, has been worked out to ensure that the productivity gains, which I spoke about earlier on, coming from different sources can be partitioned so that in addition to giving bonuses to workers, we also have to pass back the gains to the public.”
“Sir, I understand the Member has just taken over as Executive Secretary of the Singapore Port Workers' Union. He will know in due course that the bonuses are determined by consultations between the PSA and the Singapore Port Workers' Union whom he will be representing, and the Minister has no say in such matters. 2.45 pm”
“Sir, if there are clear-cut cost centres and we are able to identify these cost centres, it is preferable in terms of increased efficiency not to have cross-subsidies. Increased efficiency, as I said earlier on, brings about lower cost for consumers. If services can be identified with clear demarcation of cost centres, it should preferably be priced according to its cost, with a minimal of cross-subsidy.”
“Sir, Dr Wang has raised a very big subject. It is a subject that economists can debate forever. I do not intend to do so in detail now. I intend to give just a very brief account as to why, as a general principle, we should not deliberately practise cross-subsidy because when we do, we are unable to ensure that the consumers pay the correct price for the services they receive. Let me give an illustration. Postal and telecommunication services come under my Ministry. Indeed it is under the same statutory board. But the two businesses are totally different. Telecommunication is very high-tech and therefore over the last two decades improvements have brought costs very sharply down. Postal services, on the other hand, are very labour-intensive and cost of labour in Singapore, as we all know, has been rising sharply. Hence charges for telecommunication services must come down, while those for postal services must go up. There are occasions when it is possible to do either one or the other of two transactions within the ambit of activities of Telecom. Let me give an illustration. I can either post a letter, or I can fax it. Or I can make a telephone call to convey the same message. If we indulge in severe cross-subsidies between these two activities - telecommunication versus postal services, ie, keeping postal services cheap and telecommunication services expensive - then we may end up allocating our resources in a wrong way. We may end up having to employ a large number of people to be postal workers, paying them very high salaries because of the very tight labour market. Because there is no cross-subsidy, many companies and individuals send messages by fax and phone.”
“In addition to investing in mechanisation, computerisation and automation, we have also been investing in our workers, giving them extensive training and human resource development. Sir, last year, in 1990, PSA spent a total of $6.7 million or 3% of its wage bill on training alone. In terms of the number of hours, this is equivalent to one working week per employee and it is about 2 1/2 times the national average. We also provide other forms of rewards by way of variable performances to serve as an incentive for workers. We also provide outstanding work performances serving similar purposes. There are, of course, promotions and long-term service awards. All these, carefully structured with both the workers' interests in mind as well as the consumers' interests in mind, enable us to have a workforce in an organisation that gives the best service that we know how, and at the lowest cost. Sir, I would ask my colleague, Mr Mah Bow Tan, to address later some of the topics raised by Mr Yap on land transport.”
“Best if it is smarter, using new work procedures, and better equipment and as a result of that, increasing the overall efficiency. Productivity can also come from increased business volume so that there is greater economy of scale and therefore lower cost per unit. And most important of all, productivity can come from increased investment, in infrastructure, more machineries, faster computers, more sophisticated equipment. All these can give us greater productivity. How is this productivity gain to be shared out? Quite obviously, all productivity gains cannot go to the statutory boards or to the companies. Similarly, all productivity gains cannot go to the workers, nor can all productivity gains go to the consumers, the public. It has got to be shared and shared in an appropriate manner. And this is what we have been doing. PSA workers have been receiving higher bonuses, as Dr John Chen mentioned earlier on, because they have contributed to higher productivity. And it is very important that workers be rewarded for their increased performance. At the same time, we must return productivity gains to the public by way of lower cost to enable Singapore to maintain its competitiveness. And quite naturally, some of the gains must go back as returns on the increased investment that has been put in. Sir, I want to point out to Dr Chen that in addition to just dollars and cents, workers are also rewarded in other ways. Indeed some of the best benefits for workers are not necessarily hard cash. For example, one of the best ways of rewarding workers is to provide them with regular upgrading training, so that they acquire more skills and new skills that will enable them to earn more in the longer term. And this is what PSA and the other statutory boards have been doing.”
“But at the same time, in land scarce Singapore, we must ensure that we maximise the use of valuable land - land that was put aside for the use as a free trade zone. We want also to maximise the use of very capital intensive infrastructure. Our long-term plans are as follows. We expect to build the fourth cargo agents building with an additional 20,000 square metres of warehouse and office space and have it completed either by the end of 1993, or early 1994. At the same time, commercial developers, such as SIA and CIAS, will be adding two more cargo terminals to provide another 70,000 square metres of warehouse and office space. What this means is that we will end up with double our present handling capacity. We will bring it up to a total of 1.3 million tonnes per year. This will be more than adequate to meet demands going all the way up to the year 2000. And beyond that, beginning 1997, CAAS will commence construction of Cargo Agent Building No. 5 and Cargo Terminal Building Nos. 8 and 9. Our long-term plan, way beyond into the 21st century, calls for a free trade zone, 2 1/2 times our present area, to give us close to half a million square metres. We will end up with a total of eight cargo agents handling buildings and 14 cargo terminals, with a total capacity to handle 2.5 million tonnes of air cargo. Sir, I believe our overall long-term plan will be more than adequate to meet the demands for air cargo handling. Sir, I now move on to talk about the points raised by Dr John Chen. Sir, productivity comes about from a number of different ways, from a number of different causes. Productivity gains can come from workers working smarter or working harder.”
“My Ministry has pursued its liberal air policy of open skies for many, many years. Indeed, we are renowned among the civil aviation authorities worldwide as a country that has probably one of the most liberal open sky policies. Often Singapore is the party that encourages our air services agreement counterpart to open up, to allow more flights between our two countries. So, in a sense, I am very surprised to hear from the Member that we have not been sufficiently liberal. Indeed, we have gone even to the extent of allowing the other country to fly to Singapore on a unilateral basis where Singapore carriers are not interested in flying to that county. It is possible that there may be occasional shortages of air cargo space. There may be occasional shortages of passenger seats. Some of these are seasonal problems. Some of them are due to specific reasons. For example, over the past few months, because of the Gulf crisis, there has been widespread cancellation of flights between Singapore and Europe, and between Singapore and countries in the Gulf. These are some of the contributing factors which may be responsible for consumers wanting flights either for passenger trips, or for air cargo, experiencing some difficulty. Now that the war is over, and many of the scheduled services have been resumed, I expect this problem to disappear very quickly. 2.30 pm Sir, I now turn to the subject of air cargo. Last year, a total of 624,000 tonnes of air cargo was handled by the airport. This is an increase of more than 8% over the previous year and is one of the highest in the region. Our strategy is a simple one, which is to maintain air cargo handling capacity ahead of actual demand.”
“Many of these calls, particularly residential calls, are made in the evening and on weekends. I have therefore also asked Telecom to consider the possibility of giving a rebate for calls made in the evening. I have set the target for them to try and see if they can give a rebate of up to 30% for evening calls. Telecom will study to see what these off-peak hours should be when the economy rate can apply. I would expect to be able to give specific figures later on in the year after Telecom has completed their studies. Sir, Dr Chen has suggested the possibility of introducing some kind of an option scheme for a short period after the equipment for counting telephone calls and timing them has arrived. I agree with the objective, which is to convince the public, especially "the majority of the majority" who are going to have their bills lowered rather than increased. However, I think the suggestion is not a practical one because the pilot period between the arrival of the equipment and the implementation of the scheme will be relatively short. There are about a million subscribers of telephones. To ask that large number of people to go through an exercise of an option scheme, to last one or two months, can be disruptive and counter-productive. However, I intend to ask Telecom to carry out a pilot scheme, after the equipment has arrived, by sending subscribers their bills on a monthly basis. This will show them what their bills would be like, after we switch over to the time-based charging system. Sir, I am confident that the majority of subscribers will be pleasantly surprised and the anxieties that they will have to pay more, will prove to be unnecessary. Sir, I now turn to Mr Tang Guan Seng's comments on civil aviation.”
“We have to continue to adapt to changes because the international economy is becoming more and more competitive. The proposed change to time-based local charges for telephone calls is one such example of adaptation to change. Sir, I would like to thank the Chairman for his suggestion that we should continue to look at ways of keeping cost of using the telephone down. Telecom's formula of 1.5 cents per minute comes from a study of domestic telephone traffic pattern, and that figure reflects as closely as possible the actual cost of providing that service. That 1.5 cents is also designed to make sure that the changeover will be revenue neutral, so that it does not add any additional overall cost to the cost of doing business in Singapore. Quite obviously, there have been some apprehensions among some members of the public. This is to be expected. Sir, last year I told the House, when I was answering a question by Mr Heng Chiang Meng, that if there were productivity gains in Telecom, I would ask Telecom to consider passing some of these productivity gains to the local calls, in addition to what we had been doing previously for calls overseas. And here I am happy to inform the House, Sir, that the staff of Telecom last year, in other words, for the year 1990, had achieved a very high productivity improvement of 20%. I have therefore asked Telecom to consider the possibility of reducing time-based charges from 1.5 cents to 1.4 cents per minute. Sir, the GPC has emphasised the importance of the telephone for people like students, senior citizens, community leaders and housewives. He has also mentioned the importance of the telephone for purposes of social interaction between friends and family. I agree. The telephone is indeed an important instrument.”
“Sir, I want to thank Mr Eugene Yap, Chairman of the GPC on Communications, and the other Members of the GPC for their comments, in particular Mr Yap, for his very kind words. Sir, my Ministry's mission is to provide transport and communications infrastructure and services of the highest quality at the lowest cost. We have excellent workers and officers in the various departments and statutory boards under the Ministry. And Mr Yap's compliments to them will, I have no doubt, motivate them to work even harder because the GPC, having scrutinised the performance of the Ministry, has recognised their efforts. Sir, the correct way of keeping cost down in any business is to have high productivity. And here Dr John Chen has touched upon a very important point, which is the important role of workers and unions. I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the unions of the various statutory boards under my Ministry's charge. They have worked very closely with management. And the end result - benefits for the statutory boards through high efficiency and productivity, benefits for the workers themselves, as some of these productivity gains are passed on to the workers, and then benefits for the public at large, because again the productivity gains are passed back to the public by way of lower cost. That way we keep Singapore internationally competitive and continue to attract investments into Singapore, giving our people better jobs. Sir, we have been practising that in the Ministry and in the process, our charges for services at the airport, at the port, and at Telecoms, are among some of the lowest in the world. But there is no room for complacency. We have to continue to press on.”
“Sir, I will go through very quickly just two more points. We have to involve all citizens in total defence because our population is small and every individual Singaporean must play his part in defence. As for close cooperation with our neighbouring countries and ASEAN, we have many areas of cooperation and joint exercises that we are carrying out regularly with our neighbours, we put our friendliness into practice through regular land, sea and air exercises with our ASEAN neighbours. The Chairman: I would like to urge Members to stick within the times that I have allocated. Otherwise I will have to exercise the guillotine very often. We may have saved some time on the previous Head, but the time saved could be used for the tea break, so that we need not eat into the times of the other Ministries that are coming up. Mr Ng, would you like to withdraw your amendment?”
“Sir, the British Field Hospital that the medical team was attached to has decided that the mission has been completed and they will be returning to the United Kingdom very shortly. I expect our team will also be coming back to Singapore shortly, maybe some time this week. OVERHEAD PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE ACROSS YISHUN AVENUE 2 (Erection of shelter) 2. Dr Koh Lip Lin asked the Minister for National Development (a) what were the reasons for not approving the request to erect a shelter on the overhead pedestrian bridge across Yishun Avenue 2 at MRT Khatib Station and (b) what is the estimated cost of erecting such a shelter.”
“Sir, the team was deployed away from the scene of actual combat. But they were in the war zone. They were in the vicinity of Riyadh. And Members who have followed the Gulf war will know that Riyadh came under regular attacks by Scud missiles. Yes, the team did put their lives on the line in the execution of their duties on this particular occasion. Notwithstanding that, the morale of the team was high. They demonstrated a high level of commitment and dedication to the task in hand. Sir, our regular national servicemen and reservists who make up this team have done us proud and they deserve our every support. I am happy to note that the survey published by the Sunday Times a few weeks back showed that 90% of Singaporeans supported our mission.”
“Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House. The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Dr Yeo Ning Hong]. Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed. LEGAL PROFESSION (AMENDMENT) BILL Order for Second Reading read.”
“The situation is also a little different from that which he used as an analogy, as a comparison, namely, the Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisors. In that particular case, the Chairman is acting as the President, the final authority. In the case of the Prime Minister, he is not the final authority for the appointment of the four senior officers. He is only giving advice to the President who is the final authority for the appointment of those four officers. Sir, the Member is also concerned that the checks and balances that we have built into this Bill may on occasions create hindrance or delay to efficient and effective decision-making. I want to thank the Member for his concern for the SAF and Mindef in operational matters. I just want to say that we have been working the system for a fair period of time and our experience suggests that the proposal is probably the best way. Sir, the Armed Forces Council is the highest policy-making body of the Armed Forces and therefore decisions on policy matters should not be taken lightly. It is therefore important that the Minister himself should give his written consent to decisions taken in a meeting in which he is absent, where an Acting Chairman has been appointed. Sir, let me clarify that there will not be any undue delay if the Minister for Defence is out of the country or unavailable for a lengthy period of time. Under such circumstances, the normal practice is for the Prime Minister to appoint a Minister to be the Acting Minister for Defence, and the Acting Minister for Defence will be directly responsible to Cabinet and to Parliament. Under those circumstances, the Acting Minister for Defence is de facto the Chairman of the Armed Forces Council. So no delay will result. Question put, and agreed to.”
“Hence, for the protection of the witnesses who appear before the Committee, these reports cannot be made public. Secondly, we have to remember that the Committee of Inquiry or the Board of Inquiry investigates the accidents and goes into the details of the operations of the SAF, particularly those areas which pertain to the accident, and such details of the training and operations of the SAF carry with them security implications. Sir, in all cases where fatalities occur, the Police conducts independent inquiries and reports directly to the Attorney-General who has the discretion to prefer charges if he so decides against any accused person. The details of accidents can also be heard in a Coroner's court where the hearing is conducted in open. I take the point that the Member has made that family members of servicemen who are involved in accidents would like to know what happened and as much of the details as possible. We understand such feelings and, wherever possible, Sir, Mindef and the SAF will reveal to the families as much of the details as possible to keep them fully informed. Sir, Mr Chong also asked two other questions. Would the Prime Minister be consulting himself if he is also the Minister for Defence, when he consults the Armed Forces Council prior to advising the President on the appointment or revocation of appointment of the four senior officers of the SAF? Sir, this will not be the case, because the Armed Forces Council, as I have pointed out earlier on in my Second Reading speech, will consist of a number of people other than the Minister himself. So the Prime Minister will have the benefit of the knowledge and experience of the entire Armed Forces Council.”
“Sir, again I want to take the opportunity to put these accidents in the overall context so that Members will have a better understanding of the safety record of the Armed Forces, in particular, the Air Force. Sir, our record shows that the Republic of Singapore Air Force today is very, very much safer than what it was 20 years ago. The major accident rate has come down eight times. In other words, our safety record today is eight times better than what it was 20 years ago. Even if we include the recent accidents of the helicopters, our safety record is comparable with those in air forces in developed countries operating similar aircraft. Sir, Mr Chong also asked whether it is possible for reports of Committees of Inquiries to be made public in the case where death or fatality is concerned. Sir, the primary purpose of a Committee of Inquiry or a Board of Inquiry is to investigate the causes of the accident and to make recommendations to the Armed Forces Council to take remedial actions, if necessary, to prevent future occurrences. Sir, following British practice, the proceedings of these inquiries are privileged. Our legal system is based on the British legal system. The British Committees of Inquiries do not make their report public. Neither do we. There are two reasons for it, legal and security. The legal difficulties are that witnesses appearing before Boards of Inquiry or Committees of Inquiry are not protected by the same rules of evidence in a normal court. In the case of accidents involving death, the case will go to the Coroner's court or to any other court that the Public Prosecutor so directs. If we publish the report of the Committee of Inquiry, then that report can prejudice the court's inquiry.”
“Sir, I want to thank the Member for his contributions on the Bill. Let me first of all assure the House and members of the public that Mindef will spare no effort in ensuring the safety of our men during training. Sir, ours is a national service armed force and therefore safety must be of paramount importance. We have many safety measures in all our exercises. Let me just mention a couple of them for the information of Members. We have safety officers whose sole responsibility is to ensure that all safety measures are fully complied with, for all live firing exercises, and for all exercises involving water. We also have specialist safety officers for all the air bases to ensure safety in flying operations. On top of that, we also have special inspectorate teams in the Army, in the Navy as well as in the Air Force, to go round to monitor and to audit all training procedures to ensure that the highest level of safety is maintained. Sir, despite all these measures, and however many safety features we build into our training procedures, we have to accept that accidents do happen. Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes equipment fail unexpectedly. These are the primary causes of accidents. Sir, regarding the recent accidents that the Member alluded to, let me also assure the House that the three recent accidents are all isolated accidents. There are no systemic problems. The first accident was due to human error on the part of the co-pilot in the helicopter. The second accident, where a helicopter crashed, was most probably due to material failure. The third accident is probably a case of drowning. These are all isolated incidents and they do not reflect any systemic problem.”
“Sir, as I said, the short answer is yes. INFLATION RATE FOR 1990 (Forecast) 4. Mr Chng Hee Kok asked the Minister for Trade and Industry what is his forecast of the inflation rate for 1990 and how his Ministry is monitoring the price increases of essential services.”
“Statistical sampling is a science and Telecom has got the best advice on the build-up of the sample. I am given to understand by people who know such matters that the sample is indeed a valid sample.”
“Sir, the short answer to that question is yes. But it is like saying that all things being equal, the answer will be yes. But we all know that all things are not going to be equal. I just mentioned to him that I will not allow Telecom to sit and do nothing and just to monitor the figures so that we can provide him with the figures over the next three years after the change-over has taken place and say, "There you are, the figures show that there has been an increase in revenue and here we are, we give you back the rebates." I am saying that we do more than that. I am saying that we continue to invest in infrastructure and continue to invest in the latest switches, optical fibres and exchanges. And wherever there are productivity gains, wherever there are decreases in cost and increases in revenue, these will be passed back to the subscribers, just as Telecom has been doing it for the last 12 years.”
“Sir, I do understand the Member's point. Let me sketch out a scenario for the Member. If Telecom sits down and does nothing, it can monitor the performance of the system after we have changed over from the present flat-rate system to a usage-charged system. But I certainly do not anticipate, in fact I will not allow, Telecom to sit and do nothing. I do not think Singaporeans want a Telecom that does not make any progress. So after the changeover has taken place, there will continue to be investments made. The investments will improve the quality of telephone services in Singapore. Sir, the Member is a banker and he knows that our telephone communication system is second-to-none in terms of its cost for financial transactions worldwide and in helping Singapore maintain its position as a financial centre.”
“Sir, I have answered that question directly. If there are gains as a result of this change, Telecom will reduce the rates. But we must remember this. When you are talking about an organisation like Telecom, you are not talking about a static organisation. You are talking about an organisation will be investing billions of dollars over the next five-year period, and that investment will result in even greater productivity gains. I am saying that when there are even more productivity gains, those productivity gains will be passed back to the subscribers.”
“Sir, if there are savings as a result of productivity gains as a result of this more efficient system, Telecom will certainly consider the possibility of passing that savings back to the subscribers. Indeed, that has been the policy of Telecom all these years. For the last 12 years, Telecom has passed back a total of $2,400 million. Indeed, recently, Telecom has just passed back another $23 million back to the subscribers - cheaper rates for pagers, cheaper rates for IDD and the other services. That has always been the practice of Telecom.”
“Sir, It is insignificant. It is extremely small.”
“Sir, I do not have the figures for that at the moment, but it is in the order of a few million dollars. In the context of Telecom's overall revenue of approximately $2,000 million a year, that expenditure of a few million dollars, spread over a large number of years, is negligible.”
“Sir, that is possible. But this time it will be unfair the other way round. I will explain why. To have a telephone in a subscriber's house, Telecom has got to invest in physical infrastructure, including all the telephone lines to his house. That has to be amortised and paid for, and the flat-rate rental is the amount of money that he has got to pay for the entire infrastructure. If you go for zero-base charge and, raise the charges from 1.5 cents per minute to a few cents per minute, say, 3 or 4 or 5 cents, whatever the number works out to be, then what happens is that the heavy users will now end up subsidizing the low users because now the heavy users will have to pay for all the infrastructure which the low users enjoy as they use their telephones sparingly.”
“Sir, I take the Member's suggestion of going completely to a usage-based system to mean that there will be no charge at all even when a subscriber has a telephone in his house.”
“That would be the consequence of operating a flat-rate rental system if we had used that system for international calls. Sir, I would like to ask the Member whether that is fair. Obviously, not. Sir, the Member mentioned another point that we should not make a change because some of the businesses will have to pay more for telephone charges. True. But 60% of the businesses will pay less. The objective is not to go for an increase in revenue for Telecom, but to change the rate structure such that the final revenue is about the same. So whilst some businesses will have to pay more, others will have to pay less. So it should even itself out without any additional cost increases to be passed on to consumers.”
“Sir, I thank the Member for the supplementary questions because it provides an opportunity for further amplification. Sir, the Member says that subscribers have no complaints and therefore we should leave things be. Sir, that is the surest way for Singapore to go down the tube, which is to make no changes when circumstances have changed. True, up until now, subscribers have not made any complaints. But as I pointed out, the traffic volume of telephone calls is increasing. What that means is that Telecom will have to add more networks, more switches, more telephone lines, more optical fibres and so on, and when that happens the flat rate rental to all subscribers will have to be increased. If we do not make the change to a different system, and when we announce an increase in the telephone rates, then the public will get very upset. But that increase will be unjustified for those who are presently low users. That is why we have to make the change now. Sir, let me illustrate in a slightly different way to show why the flat-rate rental system is inappropriate in the new circumstances that we are entering. At the moment, practically every household in Singapore has got a telephone. There are no charges put on the individual subscriber for international calls. If we had operated a flat-rate rental system for international calls, then all subscribers today would probably have to pay another $100-$200 per year. What we have to do is to add up the total cost of having international calls and divide it evenly by the million subscribers that we have in Singapore. So multi-nationals who make thousands of dollars worth of calls each month will be subsidized by all the domestic subscribers who do not use their telephones at all for international calls.”
“They will be pleasantly surprised next year when the switch is made that their telephone bills will be less than what they feared; The majority of subscribers will find that their telephone bills will be less than what they are presently paying. After the new charging system has stabilised, when it is implemented in the fourth quarter of next year, Telecom will monitor the traffic patterns. If there are peaks and troughs in the traffic pattern, I will ask Telecom to consider the possibility of giving a discount for off-peak traffic. In other words, if you were to use the telephone in the evening, when the traffic is light, we can consider a discount. This will further lower the telephone bills for our residential subscribers. It will also help make even greater and more efficient use of the costly investment that we have made in our telephone network.”
“I want to assure him that the emergency calls, such as those to the Police, the Fire Service and the Ambulance Service, will not be charged when such calls are made. Indeed, the practice in many countries is that with the usage system, many companies and organisations offer free telephone calls because this service becomes part and parcel of their marketing strategies. I am sure the same trend will take place in Singapore in due course. Sir, on another point raised by Mr Chin, the number of households in Singapore who do not have a telephone is very small. They probably consider the present rate of $190 per year too high relative to the usage that they expect. With the present changeover to a usage-based system, it is probable that some of them may find the rates which have been halved much more attractive. This is an added advantage, an added bonus, for charging by usage. As to the point about public telephones, Singapore already has the highest number of public telephones per thousand people. With 27,000 public telephones all over the island, the public has no difficulty having access to a phone. All the same, Telecom will continue to put up more public phones wherever there is a need for them. Sir, I understand the concern expressed by some of the subscribers when the announcement of the change in charging system was made. Any major change can be upsetting and unsettling even if it is a change for the better. One of the reasons why Singapore is successful is that we have always made adjustments to changing circumstances and our population has always adapted to the changes. That has been one of our key strengths in Singapore. Hence, I would like to encourage Singaporeans to be patient.”
“If we continue with this flat-rate rental, where everybody pays exactly the same, then what it means is that the low users will have to subsidise the heavy users even more in future, because the cost of investing in these new infrastructures will have to be recovered evenly from everybody. This is obviously not fair since it will penalise severely the low users who are in the majority. Sir, paying for what we use according to usage is not something new. Indeed, It is something that we do all the time, every day. We pay for our consumption of electricity based on the quantity of electricity that we use. If we use less, we pay less. If we use more, we pay more. We pay for our water, petrol, food, bus rides and MRT rides, all on that same basis. Yes, it is true that moving from a fixed rate rental system for telephone services to a usage-based system is new for us in Singapore. Other countries have gone that way. In most developed countries and cities they have adopted the usage charge. At 1.5 cents per minute, our rates are amongst the lowest in the world. Sir, with your permission, I would like to circulate for Members' reference a table (Cols. 659 - 660) showing the rates that other countries charge. [Copies of Table circulated to hon. Members]. table - SOME COUNTRIES WITH USAGE SENSITIVE CHARGING (Cols. 659 - 660) Sir, Members would see from the table that the charge of 1.5 cents per minute is very low compared to what some cities in other countries charge. And 1.5 cents is less than half of what we charge for the public telephones where one pays 10 cents for every 3 minutes. Sir, Mr Chin has asked about emergency calls to the Police and to other public authorities.”
“The reason for a time-based system for charging telephone calls is to have a fairer system for all subscribers and users. This fairer system will lead to more efficient use of our telephone networks and, in the longer term, keep the cost of telephone services in Singapore down. Under the present flat-rate rental system, those who hardly use their phones pay exactly the same rate as those who use their phones extensively. What that means is that the former subsidises the latter. Telecom has done a survey. Which shows that 10% of the heaviest business users account for 34% of all the business traffic. At the other extreme, 10% of the lowest users account for only 0.1% of the traffic. In other words, the heavy users use the telephone services 340 times that of the low users. There are similar figures of disproportionate usage among the residential subscribers. The present flat-rate telephone rental system was designed for voice communication. But as more and more non-voice communication becomes available, for example, the transmission of data, fax transmissions, and becomes more widespread and is used by both businesses as well as residences, then this distortion of usage becomes even greater. That is why the present flat-rate rental system is both unfair and inappropriate. The telephone traffic in Singapore has been growing annually at a rate of about 6% for residential subscribers and 11% for business subscribers over the past five years. With increased traffic, more investment in telephone networks and exchanges becomes necessary.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I have two Questions on the same subject. With your permission, I would like to answer both of them together.”
“Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed. NEWSPAPER AND PRINTING PRESSES (AMENDMENT) BILL Order for Second Reading read.”
“Sir, I thank the Member for his support. Surveys done by the Marine Department have shown that most of the ships registered in Singapore are already meeting the MARPOL Convention, because the MARPOL Convention has come into effect in 1987 and most shipowners are very conscious of the importance of preventing pollution. So many of them have already made the adjustments. When the Bill is passed and enacted, the Ministry will arrange for the Marine Department to give advice. Indeed advice has already been given when the Bill was in the drafting stage. As I said earlier, there were extensive consultations. So I would expect that when the Bill is enacted in a few months' time, practically all, if not all, ships would have met the conditions. As for the second question, the MARPOL Convention applies worldwide and it is maritime law that countries have jurisdiction only within their territorial waters and jurisdiction on ships registered under their country's flag. So if a ship that is registered under the Singapore flag pollutes the sea outside of Singapore's territorial water, then that ship will face the appropriate punishment. But if it is a ship that is not registered with Singapore and is outside Singapore's territorial water, then the appropriate measures to be taken would be to report the incident to the state that the ship is flagged with. Of course, if the ship is in some other country's territorial waters, the report can also be made to that other state to take appropriate measures. Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House. The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Dr Yeo Ning Hong].”
“Under this part, the owner of a ship, the occupier of a piece of land or the person in charge of any equipment or apparatus which leads to pollution is liable for the costs of reasonable measures taken to remove the pollutants from Singapore waters discharged from that ship, place, or apparatus Part VI, the final part, deals with miscellaneous matters such as the powers of inspectors, detention and arrests, evidential and procedural matters, juris- diction of courts and composition of offences. It empowers the Minister to make regulations to give effect to any of the provisions of the MARPOL Convention and any of its Annexes which has not been given effect in this Act. Sir, I beg to move. Question proposed.”
“Part 1 deals with the preliminary matters such as the title and the definitions. Part II deals with the prevention of pollution from land and from apparatus and equipment used in the transfer of oil. Part III deals with the prevention of pollution from ships. This part prohibits the discharge of any oil or noxious liquid substances from Singapore ships into any part of the sea and from foreign ships into Singapore waters. The discharge of any refuse, garbage, plastic, wastes, marine pollutants and other such matters in packaged form or trade effluents from any ship into Singapore waters is also prohibited. Part IV empowers the Minister to direct the Port of Singapore Authority and terminal operators to provide adequate reception facilities for oil and noxious liquid substances as appropriate. It also enables the Minister to make regulations to require every Singapore ship and all ships in Singapore waters to carry an oil record book or a cargo record book as appropriate with the prescribed particulars duly recorded. Under this part, the master of a ship has a duty to report all actual or probable discharge of any harmful substance from a Singapore ship into any part of the sea or from any other ship coming into Singapore waters. Part V deals with the recovery of costs for removing pollutants.”