WOTC - Higher price for water from Malaysia

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd - Should Singapore agree to pay a higher price for our water from Malaysia?

Here are the responses:

40% - We should adjust the price to allow for inflation.
38% - We should stick to the price of 3 sen set out in the separation agreement.
13% - We should adjust the price to the level reflected by alternative sources
9% - If we agree to a higher price, Malaysia will keep coming back for more.

Yes. 53%. No 47%

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=725

WOTC - Flexible approach towards Malaysia

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd - Should our leaders adopt a more flexible approach towards Malaysia?

Here are the responses:

53% - We need to be flexible to build trust and friendship
20% - The Singapore leaders are too inflexible.
16% - It is better to adopt a principled approach
10% - It is difficult to trust the Malaysia leaders

Yes - 73%. No 27%

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=724

Cessation of bike sharing operations

Three bike sharing operations have ceased operation as they are not able to meet the onerous licensing requirements imposed by the Land Transport Authority.

It is wasteful for these operators to spend a few million dollars to set up an operation only to have to close it due due to these requirements. Their customers, who have placed deposits, will also suffer the loss of their deposits, if they are not able to get a full refund.

I understand that one of the requirement is a fine of $500 if the operator is not able to retrieve the shared bike that is left outside of the designated place. I find this fine to be excessive.

I suggest that the focus of the penalty should be on the customers who were responsible for the bad behavior. There is very little that the operator can do, except to spend a lot of money to employ workers to retrieve these bikes.

I suggest that each customer should be required to place a deposit of $50 and that the deposit will be forfeited if they leave the bike outside the authorised zone. These customers would not be able to book the shared bike in the future.

If customers are aware of the penalty, and it is allowed under the licensing regime, they are likely to play their part and observe the rules. The operators will then be able to run a viable operation.

The Land Transport Authority can authorise a company to retrieve the mis-parked bikes and return it to a designated compound for a finder fee of $30. I am sure that these finders will find it an attractive proposition.

Let us avoid a situation where the operator and their thousands of customers lose out due to onerous and impractical regulations. Let these operators continue to provide a service that benefit the public at large.

Tan Kin Lian

http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=201

Price of water in Singapore

Some people are worried that water price will increase if we have to pay more for water from Johore.

Let me present some figures so that people get the facts before they make wild statements.

Currently, we pay 3 sens per 1,000 gallons. The Johore statement government ask for 50 sen, or S$0.17. It is an increase of $0.16.

Do you know how much we are paying for water in Singapore now?

From 1 July 2018, we pay $3.69 per cubic meter, or $13.65 per 1,000 gallon (for the second tier after 40 cubic meter).

The cost of treating water is probably less than $2 per 1,000 gallon.

Don't worry. The price of $13.65 is very high already.

The government does not need to increase the water price, even if they have to pay $0.16 more to the Johore government.

But, who knows. We do have a greedy government, right?

http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=200

Additional property cooling measure - July 2018

I hold the view that there is no need for the additional property cooling measure that was introduced yesterday.

I suspect that most of the buyers for the private properties come from the 8,000 owners who pocked their huge profits from the recent collective sales and have to replace their property. I do not think that there are many new buyers who have the money to afford the ridiculous high prices.

The additional cooling measure will dampen the property market considerably. There will be a big oversupply of new appartments, from the government land sales, collective sales and the unsold units from past projects.

I expect a big over-supply of properties.

If I am correct, it is another sign of an incompetent government which is not in touch with the market.

If I am wrong, okay. I have the right to be worng.

Tan Kin Lian
http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=199

Vote in a more competent government

Some people describe my postings as "ranting" or "complaining".

I wish to tell these idiots to be respectful.

I do not rant or complain. I do not bother about losing a few dollars. They do not affect me.

I bring out these posts because there are so many practices that are wasteful and unnecessary and add to the stress for people and increase the cost of living and the cost of doing business.

We have a government that wants to increase their revenue, but are not aware of the cost to the country.

My posts are to bring these issues to the attention of the public. We need to vote in a more competent government.

Competition Commission

I disagree with the decision of the Competition Commission regarding the Grab Uber merger.

My common sense tells me that the merger does not affect the ordinary commuters.

As a regular user of public transport, including taxis, I have the following choices:

a) Call Grab
b) Hail a taxi on the road or at a taxi stand
c) Call a taxi company to pick me up
d) Take public transport

The merger does not affect me. I have enough choices to avoid any predatory pricing.

I also disagree with several past decision of the Competition Commission, including their hefty fines on bus operators travelling to Malaysia and the removal of the guidelines on medical fees.

I find the Competition Commission to be harmful for consumers, instead of looking after the interest of consumers.

Why do we need this commision anyway? They seem to behave like a headless chicken running amok.

I was once told that this is a requirement under the Free Trade Agreement signed with America. Well, this is just one of the many harmful effects of this FTA. (Of course, there are some benefits as well).

I wish the Competition Commission to be headed by someone who can exercise common sense.

Tan Kin Lian

http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=198

Guidelines on wages and working conditions

Some people still hold to the idea that wages and working conditions should be negotiated between the employer and individual employee.

This has been the practiced in Singapore and most countries around the world.

What is the outcome of this practice?

Wages are suppressed, often below the living wage. Many workers have to do two jobs to earn enough to raise a family.

Most families need two people to be working to earn enough.

This is harmful to the society, to families and to the future generations.

Why is this so?

The individual employees have weak bargaining power. They also have inadequate information about what is a fair wage for the job.

The problem is exaberated when the government allows a relatively free inflow of foreign workers who are willing to work for low wages, due to the poverty in their countries.

Many countries impose a minimum wage. This is a good approach. (Sadly, Singapore still does not have this prctice).

But a minimum wage is just the starting point. Surely, there are occupations which require skills and experience, and should pay above the minimum wage?

It is relatively easy for the government to provide the guideline on a "fair wage" for each occupation. They have data on the earnings of people in each category of job. They also have data of salaries based on contribution to the Central Provident Fund.

If the government analyze the data, they can provide guidelines on the wage for each category of job.

This information can be published as a guideline for employers and individual workers. The two parties can still negotiate for the actual wage, but they are guided by the guidelines.

Under this system, there is no need to have trade unions to carry out collective bargaining for the wages and to resort to costly and harmful worker strikes to settle the issue.

The guidelines can also cover the other terms of employment.

Trade unions still have a role to help their members to deal with individual disputes on their working conditions or perceived harassment in the workplace.

We need a new framework for wages and working conditions to promote the welfare of workers and businesses.

Tan Kin Lian

http://tklcloud.com/Conv/feedback2.aspx?id=134

WOTC - Better wages and working conditions

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd - Should trade unions go on strike to get better wages and working conditions for workers?

Here are the responses:
38% - They should go on strike as the last resort.
34% - The government can provide guidelines and working conditions for each category of workers
22% - The dispute should be settled in the industrial arbitration court.
6% - The strike can be large scale and harmful to the economy.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=723

WOTC - How should salaries be determined?

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd - How should salaries be determined?

Here are the responses:
44% - The salary should be a living wage, adequate to meet the cost of living.
25% - The salary should be negotiated between the employer and individual employee.
17% - The salary should meet a guideline for each occupation provided by the government.
14% - The salary should be negotiated through collective bargaining between the employer and the trade union.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=722

Lack of foresight and will

Rachel Ash commented on my post about cashless payment:

Mr Tan There is no will on the part of our authorities. In the earlier days we can attribute it to lack of foresight but a late stage like as now, they are grabbing in the dark, hoping a vendor would come out with an integrated solution, just like Silverlake did for banks.

We lack innovators, visionaries, doers among our authorities, instead we have followers, glory grabbers, copiers, several bag of gases.

Even though I don't know you personally but do see your work and I can safely say you can easily replace several of our authorities all at once.

While you were away on a cruise, several caught your brown rabbit designing election pamphlets while the other rabbit was frantically printing them. We wondered who your rabbits are working for.

REPLY
I agree that we have lack of foresight and lack of will in the top levels of our government. And the lower levels wait for instructions.

My two rabbits were designing and printing brochures for the Carrot Party. They said that voters like carrots, so this party is sure to win.

Promote cashless payment

PM Lee's call to promote cashless payment is making slow progress after nearly a year. It reflects badly on his leadership and on Singapore.

I wish to suggest this step to speed up the transformation.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore should required all banks to provide an easy way for customers to top up their e-wallet or smart card (such as EZ Link). A mobile number can be entered into the smart card to facilitate the topup.

This service should be provided for the same fee as withdrawing cash from ATM machines, which is currently free.

The topup can be done at an ATM machine or online.

If the public is able to top up their e-wallet or smart card easily, they are more inclined to use e-wallet or smart card payment.

We still have to deal with the problem of many platforms. It is likely that most customers will gravitate to a platform that has the most vendors. If several platforms are to be viable, just like having many banks, we will need a clearing house to allow the payments to pass from one platform to another.

I hope that the people in MAS or Smart Nation project will pay attention to this matter. We need a structural change to achieve the goal of cashless payment.

Tan Kin Lian

http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=196
http://tklcloud.com/Conv/feedback2.aspx?id=132

Johore wants to increase price of water by 1600%

The Johore State Government wants to increase the price of water by 1600%. This sounds a very big increase. Actually, it is 16 times.

Under the 1962 water agreement, Singapore draws 250 million gallons of water a day from the rivers in Johore and pays 3 cents (RM) per 1,000 gallons.

The cost is RM 7,500 per day or RM 2,737,500 a year or S$ 925,000 a year. OK, say $1 million a year.

If Johore wants to increase the price by 16 times, we will be paying $16 million a year.

Does this sound like a lot of money? We spend $16 million to host the Trump Kim Summit for 2 days. This is the same amount as the water that we take from Johore for on year.

Did I get the calculation correct?

https://www1.mfa.gov.sg/SINGAPORES-FOREIGN-POLICY/Key-Issues/Water-Agreements

Can someone check my calculation?

Tan Kin Lian

Cashless payments using EZ Link card

PM Lee set a goal for Singapore to adopt cashless payment at the food courts and retail outlets.

He was told about the widespread use of mobile payments using QR code. He thought that this was the correct approach, as it was adopted successfully in China.

A lot of effort had been invested by many parties during the past year. The progress has been disappointing. We have a fragmentation of platforms.

I wish to suggest a new approach towards cashless payments.

We should use the EZ Link card that is now widely used for public transport.

EZ Link had also signed up a small number of retail outlets, but the adoption had been dismal.

One stumbling block is the difficulty of retail outlets to install a EZ Link terminal to accept payment through this source. This terminal cost $50 to $100 a month. The transction fee is 3 to 5% of the amount collected.

I wish to propose a solution.

We can design a mobile app that allows the retailer to accept payment through EZ Link. This will replace the expensive terminal.

As mobile phones are cheap, it can be a low cost terminal. The retailer enters the amount and the customer taps the EZ Link card. The amount is transferred.

The EZ Link fee should be 5 cents per transaction (instead of 3% to 5% of the amount.

Retailers will be happy to adopt this method as they will save a lot of time by not handling cash. The fee is also much lower than the fee payable to the banks for NETS and credit card payments.

Almost every adult and child have an EZ Link card. It is easy to top up the card at the MRT stations.

If this approach is adopted, we can have cashless payments introduced very quickly in Singapore.

Do you agree?

Tan Kin Lian

Enrol in CareShield Life?

Dear Mr. Tan

I’m 48 years old single man who is currently unemployed taking care of my 73 years old mum who has recently diagnosed of dementia. She is also a diabetic patient for more than 20 years. As I am her only child and my dad has passed away many years ago , I naturally become the main care giver. My mum has no insurance coverage except she is under the PG scheme and medishield life. I’m staying in a 3 room flat at Toa Payoh for many years.

Few years I opted out the Eldershield as I found this scheme impractical and ridiculous. As the government is going to roll in the Careshield Life in a few years time, I would like to seek your kind opinion whether I should enrol into it and what I should look out for before signing up. Also, do you have any recommended insurance where I can consider as I’m worry that if I remain single till old age, who would take care of me when I am sick and financially I may not able to sustain for future medical expenses and/or nursing home care and so on and so for.

REPLY HERE

http://www.fisca.sg/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ID=592&Name=Enrol-in-CareShield-Life?&View=A

WOTC - Biggest worry for Singapore

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd - What is the biggest worry for Singaporeans?

Here are the responses:

33% - Incompetent government
31% - High cost of living
23% - Insecurity of jobs
13% - Oppressive government.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=720

WOTC - Improve relations with Malaysia

I asked this question in the Wisdom of the Crowd - How can we improve relations with Malaysia?

Here are the responses:

72% - Adopt give and take
18% - Negotiate terms clearly with them
5% - They cannot be trusted
5% - Forget about improving relations.

See the breakdown of the votes in
http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=721

Toggle and World Cup 2018

My son subscribed to Mediacorp Toggle to watch World Cup 2018. This subscription allows two concurrent users. He passed one privilege to me.

I installed Toggle and can watch the old matches. When I came to a live match, I received a message that there was a connection error that needed to be fixed.

I followed the detailed instruction to make the setting but it failed. I had to change the time on my desktop to synchronize with FIFA. But the operation failed. I tried many times but it still failed.

I sent a detailed feedback to Mediacorp. They asked for a lot of technical information, such as the version number of the browser, Windows software, etc. It took quite a while to get the information.

After submitting the feedback, I did not get any reply from Mediacorp by email or mobile (both were provided).

i sent a reminder after a few days. I still did not get any reply.

The matches are now more than have over. The semi finals and finals are broadcast free anyway.

I have watched videos on NetFlix and YouTube and also live webinars. I did not get the kind of trouble similar to Toggle.

Why is it that our organizations in Singapore create complicated processes that require a lot of work to set up, and still fail? Why do they create a feedback form that is so troublesome to fill in, and ask for so much technical details? Why do they not respond promptly to feedback, even from paying customers?

Welcome to Singapore.

Bank Transfer to businesses

I suggest that a directory of companies and their bank accounts be published. This will allow the public to pay these companies by bank transfer to their bank account, instead of writing a cheque.

Most companies do not provide the bank account in their invoices. They can register their bank account is this directory.

For example, if I receive an invoice from a company called ABC Ltd, I can search the directory for their bank account and make a bank transfer to that account - instead of writing a cheque.

Should I move from ElderShield to CareShield?

My wife read the newspaper and asked me - should I buy CareShield?

I told her - you are already covered under Eldershield. When CareShield is launched in 2021, you should move to CareShield. It is better than ElderShield.

Well - she does not understand what the difference is. It is very confusing to her.

I am sure that it is also very confusing to 90% of the people in Singapore.

I don't know why it has to be so complicated.

Like someone said - if it is not convoluted, it is not Singapore.

Welcome to Singapore.