By Joanne Chan | Posted: 06 March 2012 1801 hrs
SINGAPORE: From next
month, new hawker stallholders will no longer be allowed to sublet or
assign their stalls to another person.
Senior Minister of State
for Environment and Water Resources, Grace Fu, said hawker stalls were
set up to provide Singaporeans with an opportunity to run their own
small business. As such, stalls should be personally run and not be used
for profiteering.
Speaking in Mandarin during the debate on her
ministry's budget in Parliament, Ms Fu said existing stallholders will
have a three-year grace period to adjust to these new conditions.
She
added that controlling subletting and assignment of stalls will help to
stabilise rentals, reduce costs for stallholders and achieve food price
stability.
The issue of hawkers transferring their stall
tenancies for a high price has been an ongoing concern among customers,
who worry about the impact on food prices. The practice is believed to
have started around 10 years ago.
Channel NewsAsia reported in
November 2011 that at least four stalls at a hawker centre in Kovan have
changed hands for fees ranging between S$250,000 and S$300,000.
However,
Ms Fu acknowledged that it is not easy for a stallholder to operate a
stall for a full day. Thus, the National Environment Agency (NEA) will
permit joint tenancies, and do away with the requirement that each stall
can only have a single tenant.
NEA will also not set a reserve
rent when tendering out vacant stalls. This means that even if the
bidding price is below market price, NEA will allocate the vacant stall
to the highest bidder as long as there are competitive bids.
Ms
Fu also announced the locations where new hawker centres will be built
within the next five years. They are Bukit Panjang, Yishun, Pasir Ris,
Jurong West, Admiralty, Tampines and Punggol.
She said: "In the
year ahead, we will be consulting closely with members and grassroots on
the new centres that will be built. Their design and development should
be informed by the views of the people they will serve as hawker
centres are more than just places for affordable food.
"They are
also important common spaces that cultivate the sense of community upon
which environmental stewardship depends. Like schools, parks,
playgrounds and community centres, they are places where Singaporeans
from different walks of life encounter one another, share the same space
and experience things together."
-CNA