Ensure coffee shops don't use water fee hike as excuse to profiteer, says MP

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.

Singaporeans must continue working hard because the country has no oil or other natural resources to tap, he said.

“This is why the Government has told the people we have to work together, number one. Number two, we have to work very hard. There’s no choice for Singapore,” said Mr Shanmugam.

“People say we can relax, we’re now a First World country, we tax the rich and we pay for everybody else. But why would the rich stay here if they can go somewhere else? How much can you tax the rich? So we all have to work hard.”