Yesterday’s public outcry may have been about oBike’s abrupt exit from Singapore — and with them, probably all our $49 deposits as well. But today’s Outrage of the Day is the revelation that elected Members of Parliament (MPs) pay a paltry $365 a year to park at all HDB carparks and at Parliament House.
The outrage is understandable. After all, wasn’t it just a few months ago that the government decided to make Singapore’s teachers pay the full, unsubsidized price of parking their vehicles at school carparks?
In response to queries by The Straits Times, the Ministry of National Development (MND) stated that elected MPs pay $365 for an annual permit that allows them to park at HDB carparks when doing constituency work and at the Parliament House when on official business. Only elected MPs though — non-constituency MPs and Nominated MPs will have to pay the normal fees like any other civilian.
The amount is about a third of prevailing HDB season parking rates, said MND, which is already an increase from the $260 permit fee prior to 2016. Nonetheless, the bottom line is this — they only need to fork out a dollar a day to park their cars.
Compare and contrast
Let’s compare the $365 charge to the standard annual parking fee paid by non-MPs. HDB residents are charged $80 monthly for surface car parks (translating to $960 a year) and $110 for sheltered car parks ($1,320 a year).
Since we’re here, might as well compare the annual parking fees for those working in another noble profession: teaching. In a bid to ensure a “clean wage policy”, the Ministry of Education is set to remove free parking (or at least cheaper parking) in all primary and secondary schools, junior colleges and post-secondary institutes.
Come August, teachers will have to pay a uniform parking rate. Teachers will have to pay $100 monthly during school terms to park at sheltered carparks, while it’s $20 monthly during school holidays in June, November, and December. Non-sheltered carparks are cheaper — it’s $75 a month during school terms and $15 a month during school holidays.
So! On top of the stresses of the classroom, long working hours, and overwhelming administrative workloads, Singapore’s car-dependant teachers will have to fork out between $720 to $960 a year to park at their workplaces.
Not passing judgment here, but it is a fact that most of Singapore’s teachers aren’t taking home an MP’s annual salary of $192,500.
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