Ensure coffee shops don't use water fee hike as excuse to profiteer, says MP
By Neo Chai Chin
Published: 11:30 PM, March 5, 2017
Updated: 2:33 PM, March 6, 2017
SINGAPORE — Bring back a committee against profiteering to ensure that establishments such as coffee shops do not profiteer by raising prices using water fee hikes as an excuse, Member of Parliament (Nee Soon GRC) Lee Bee Wah said on Sunday (March 5).
Speaking to reporters after a residents’ dialogue with Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, Ms Lee said: “I’d like to urge the Government, especially the Ministry of Trade and Industry, to look into cases where coffee shops increase prices now.”
The ministry could investigate whether any increases since the water price hikes were announced on Feb 20 were justifiable, said Ms Lee, who noted that water prices were going up in two phases only on July 1 this year and next.
Such a committee was previously set up in 1994 to look into complaints and feedback on establishments that were allegedly profiteering by using increases in Goods and Services Tax as an excuse.
“It’s timely to activate the committee so that residents can use WhatsApp to feed back, and it can go investigate,” said Ms Lee, echoing a call by fellow MP Lim Biow Chuan during the Budget debate.
If checks on any coffee shops that raised prices after Feb 20 are not done, then other businesses may follow suit, added Ms Lee, who termed price increases of even 10 cents for coffee on the basis of higher water prices as “too much”.
This is because the 30 per cent increase in water prices translates into users paying 60 cents more per 1,000 litres of water, which is enough for about 5,000 cups of coffee, she said.
At the dialogue at Nee Soon South Community Club, which took place before an International Women’s Day health talk in the constituency, Mr Shanmugam highlighted the need for Singapore to balance expenditure and income.
“In every country, people want to pay less tax, and they want more from the Government. But it doesn’t work ... In the end, we have to pay for what we use,” he said.
“We use the money very carefully, but after 2020, if you look at the pattern — government expenditure is high, health care, social welfare and so on, housing — we have to find ways of increasing the income.”
He noted that the Government’s expenditure exceeds its operating revenue. The returns on Singapore’s reserves supplement the annual Budget through the Net Investment Returns Contribution.
continue reading here :
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...water-fee-hike
If you don't raise water prices the coffee shops would not have any excuse to raise prices or anyone else for that matter .
