Support for Point-to-Point Sector Given Rising Petrol Prices and Slow Recovery in Passenger Numbers

9 Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked the Minister for Transport in view of the rising petrol prices, whether the Ministry has considered giving support to the point-to-point (P2P) sector to help defray such costs as the industry faces a slow start to passenger recovery.

The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Transport): The Government actively monitors the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the point-to-point (P2P) sector. Amid lower ridership, the Government has set aside more than $1 billion to provide broad-based as well as sector-specific support to the P2P drivers. Since February 2020, the Government has introduced the Point-to-Point Support Package (PPSP), Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) and multiple tranches of COVID-19 Driver Relief Fund (CDRF).

At Budget 2021, the Government raised the petrol duty as part of Singapore’s sustainability drive. To mitigate the financial impact of this on active P2P drivers with petrol vehicles, the Government provided road tax rebate of 15%, which is about $120, as well as additional petrol duty rebate of $360 in 2021 as offsets.

P2P ridership has steadily recovered from about 70% of pre-COVID-19 levels in October 2021 during the Stabilisation Period, to about 80% in December 2021. This has bolstered the incomes of our P2P drivers.

The Government currently has no plans to provide additional support to defray higher fuel costs which is the result of market forces of global supply and demand factors. We will continue to monitor the P2P sector and the demand for such services to ensure that drivers are coping well in this challenging period.

Mr Speaker: Ms Yeo Wan Ling.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. Our P2P drivers have given feedback on the rising costs to their businesses, such as the impending GST hikes, in addition to what we had mentioned about the rising petrol cost. When was the last time meter and flag-down rates were revised, and would the Ministry and the Public Transport Council be looking at revising flag-down fares or fare structures for both the taxi and private hire services?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Let me say that the Government does not regulate fares. In fact, for taxis, in 1998, we had deregulated the fares. So, taxi and Private Hire Car (PHC) operators have actually been making adjustments to their fares over the years. In fact, most recently, a PHC operator actually adjusted the fares last year. The operators are responsible for adjusting the taxi and PHC fares, taking into account prevailing market conditions. And I think they are best placed to do so, to better match the supply and demand of P2P services even as they take into account their own cost structures as well as, of course, ensuring that fares remain competitive, given the landscape.

This will also allow market forces to effectively respond in a timely manner and also encourage the service providers to improve their service offerings. In fact, there have been benefits to this approach. You can see that there is high vehicle availability during peak hours. What the Government does – it does not regulate fares – is that it requires the operators to provide the Public Transport Council advance notice of any fare adjustments. We also want to ensure that these fares are transparent, easy to understand, so that commuters can make an informed choice.

Additionally, what we have also done is to ensure that the P2P regulatory framework provides an open P2P market so that the taxi drivers are allowed to multi-home, instead of just driving exclusively for one operator. With regard to fuel cost, for instance, one of the ways really would be for them to do more ride hails and reduce the mileage clocked from plying the streets.