Food security and the Vehicle Entry Permit…

[Sammyboy RSS Feed]

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

“When Singapore raised the price for the Vehicle Entry Permit for Malaysian cars, there was a reason for it.

Singapore controls its car population which results in high car prices. Over the last few years, COEs have also risen. It is unfair for Singaporeans if Malaysians can drive their far cheaper cars into Singapore and use it within Singapore as they like. Therefore Malaysians have to pay a VEP to use their cars daily in Singapore. Since car prices in Singapore have risen, it is only fair that VEPs should also rise.

Malaysia on the other hand does not have similar car population control measures, as they have a lot of land. Their introduction of a VEP for Singaporean cars is purely a petty, tit-for-tat measure.

The Malaysians have further decided to increase their toll charge by 400%. This is different and separate from the VEP they said they would introduce.

Singapore’s toll charge has always matched Malaysia’s toll charge. The toll is different from the VEP. The toll is a fee you pay when you enter the immigration complex. Our VEP is so Malaysian cars can be used on Singapore roads. There is absolutely no reason for Malaysia to raise their toll charges, but if they do, Singapore will match it.

In a nutshell, this all started from an extremely reasonable measure by the Singaporean Government to protect Singaporeans – by making sure that Malaysians don’t have a loophole to drive their far cheaper cars in Singapore.”

Reducing vehicles in Singapore is a good reason yes, so I’ll leave it at that.

I did notice also some comments were about how these permits would affect local food prices.

Personally, I support Calvin’s theory of reducing foreign vehicle presence in Singapore. Current entry permits for goods vehicles is $10. The proposed increase would see it lifted to $40. This $30 difference is not going to affect Singapore’s food prices by a lot.

Consider the recent raising of “sin” tax. It increased by a dramatic 25% per litre of beer (that’s $60). However, that only translated to about between 20 – 70 cents for a bottle of beer. Ok, granted that’s not an apples-to-apples comparison. What i’m saying is this $40 will be diluted when the lorry load of goods finally arrives on your dinner plate.

Pessimistically speaking though, I think importers....

http://www.fivestarsandamoon.com/foo...-entry-permit/


Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com.