SINGAPORE: Town councils in Singapore will receive more than S$100 million of additional funding a year to maintain and replace lifts, the Ministry of National Development (MND) announced on Thursday (Feb 2).
In a press release, the ministry said the additional grant support was to help town councils with their running costs and assist them with their lift modernisation and asset replacement programmes.
The funding will consist of a lift maintenance grant of S$600 per lift owned and maintained by the town councils, which is expected to cost the Government an additional S$13 million a year, as well as match 50 per cent of their quarterly contributions to the Lift Replacement Fund that will become mandatory for town councils from Apr 1 this year.
MND said the lift maintenance grant was to help town councils cope with higher lift-related servicing and maintenance costs.
The lift replacement fund, meanwhile, is expected to cost the Government more than S$50 million in the coming year and the grant quantum is “likely” to increase as the town councils build up the fund over time, the ministry added.
The additional funding is in addition to a Lift Enhancement Programme MND announced last year, which allocated S$450 million over the next 10 years to help town councils co-fund the costs of retrofitting older lifts.
Taken together, the additional funding will double MND’s existing funding support to town councils – under the annual Service and Conservancy Charge operating grants and quarterly Goods and Services Tax subvention – which amounted to around S$120 million in FY15/16, according to the ministry.
However, MND said that while the Government was extending significant financial support, town councils still needed to do their part to “plan ahead and take appropriate and timely steps to ensure that their long-term finances are sustainable”.
“Ultimately, town councils have a statutory responsibility to manage and maintain the common property in HDB estates,” it said in the statement.
