A flight of stairs covered with gold foil that made the headlines this week was a talking point in the House yesterday. The artwork in a Jalan Rajah HDB block, created by 25-year-old Lasalle student Priyageetha Dia, was raised by Nominated MP Kok Heng Leun, who called it an example of “ground-up community art”.

“Some residents have safety concerns about it, but others, including myself, think it is a brilliant piece of art,” he said. Such artwork is “often spontaneous and interventionist” and “engages and enlivens the community in a positive manner”, he added during the debate on the Culture, Community and Youth Ministry’s budget.

“Should our policies not adjust, so as to allow more community engagement and participation in the arts?”

Replying, the ministry’s Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng said he was “very encouraged” by Ms Dia’s “creativity to enhance our living spaces”, but added the town council has to address residents’ concerns.

Jalan Besar Town Council said while it appreciated Ms Dia’s “desire to enhance her surrounding space”, her act was unauthorised under its by-laws. Pictures of the work have been online since Monday, and drawn debate about whether it is a work of art or vandalism.

In his reply, Mr Baey cited artist Jaxton Su, who last year painted a mural in Race Course Road with the support of the property owner and the National Arts Council (NAC). “We encourage young artists to work closely with precinct and space managers to enliven our community. NAC will be happy to facilitate this process.”

Said Culture, Community and Youth Minister Grace Fu: “The first rule of any artist who wants to do community art is ask for permission from the property owner. That’s basic courtesy.” She added: “Both parties can sit down and see how to best meet the needs of both.”

Yesterday, Ms Dia’s mother Susela told The Straits Times her daughter will be taking down the gold foil from the staircase in the coming days.

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2017-03-09 11:52:14

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Artist dresses up HDB staircase in gold: Yay or nay?

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The Straits Times

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Read also: Gold stairs earn praise but are out of step with rules
The Internet thinks this gold staircase is a brilliant idea, even though authorities don’t

This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
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The new Vehicle Emissions Scheme (VES) will inevitably push car prices up but for now, some dealers are facing uncertainty over actual vehicle pollutant levels because these need to be confirmed with the manufacturers, and also because of the impending change in emission standards for petrol vehicles.

VES replaces the current Carbon Emissions-based Vehicle Scheme (CEVS) on Jan 1, 2018 and is more stringent.

In addition to carbon dioxide (CO2), four more pollutants are measured – hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM).

“The additional pollutants are mainly targeting diesel cars but petrol will also have it bad,” said a spokesman for Komoco Motors, the authorised Hyundai distributor. “Models in the market which currently enjoy a rebate may fall into the surcharge territory.”

Read also: S$9.2b to come from car taxes and COE premiums in FY2017

Vincent Tan, managing director of well-known parallel importer VinCar, said that “the whole industry will be affected”.

He added: “Diesel cars will no longer enjoy rebates but across the board, the rebate level has dropped and the CO2 limit has been lowered.”

CEVS’s nine bands for cars and taxis will collapse into five under VES, with two rebate/surcharge bands and one neutral band.

For cars, the rebate or surcharge will either be S$10,000 or S$20,000 (from the current S$5,000, S$10,000, S$15,000 and S$30,000).

Read also: Motorbike COE price rise surprises

The higher rebate is also capped at below 90g/km from below 100g/km, while the neutral band will be tightened from the current 136-185g/km to 125-160g/km.

As a result, all diesel models are “badly affected”, lamented an executive at a dealership. An example: a 2.0-litre turbodiesel sedan’s S$10,000 rebate will become a S$20,000 surcharge. “All because of NOx (nitrogen oxide); PM (particulate matter) is not so bad,” he said.

As for petrol cars, VinCar’s Honda Vezel hybrid, which now attracts the highest S$30,000 rebate, will still qualify for the maximum rebate under the new scheme but only S$20,000.

Komoco also has a hybrid model, the Hyundai Ioniq, and it should still qualify for the maximum rebate under VES, said the spokesman. But he added that this is based on a preliminary check and requires official confirmation from the factory.

While a lower or no rebate should lead to higher sticker prices, Nicholas Wong, general manager of authorised Honda distributor Kah Motor, said that much depends on the COE levels.

Read also: COE tender postponement sparks speculation of major car tax changes

“Most models will fall from S$5,000 into the neutral band because of the tightening but if COE premiums drop, then overall prices will not be higher,” he explained.

“We still have eight or nine months to react but moving forward, it will be very difficult to own a big car.”

As an example, the Honda Odyssey large MPV with a 2.4-litre naturally aspirated engine is now in the neutral band. Under VES, it will be slapped with a S$10,000 surcharge.

But even as prices are set to rise, distributors are not completely sure by how much. This is because the Euro 6 vehicle emission standard will be adopted on Sept 1, 2017. Most models sold here today are only Euro 4-compliant, with the data on pollutants based on that standard.

Read also: Motorbike COE price rise surprises

“Since a vehicle’s VES rebate or surcharge will be determined by its worst-performing pollutant, after Euro 6 kicks in, we won’t know whether PM will be the worst performer instead of CO2,” Mr Wong said.

One distributor, who asked not to be named, said that there was a “rush for everyone to switch over”.

“There are too many different dates at the moment,” he said, referring to Euro 6 implementation for petrol in September but Jan 1, 2018 for diesel. “We still have to request the manufacturers for the data and the wait can last a couple of weeks or a couple of months. But we don’t have the luxury of time because homologation takes two to four months.”

This article was first published on Mar 10, 2017.
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In one of the largest cases of unpaid wages this year, two local construction companies are under probe for not paying the salaries of 31 Bangladeshi construction workers and attempting to send them home.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is investigating HBB Engineering and C-Plus Engineering for not paying the workers’ wages on time.

Both companies have the same owner, Mr A. B. M. Rafiqul Islam, a Bangladeshi national who is a Singapore permanent resident.

“We are investigating the companies for failing to pay salaries on time and for attempting to send them home without paying their salaries in full, with a view to prosecute them,” said an MOM spokesman.

According to MOM, 31 workers sought help from the ministry between January and this month.

Twenty were from HBB Engineering and 11 from C-Plus Engineering. They were owed between four and eight months’ pay.

The ministry stepped in and managed to get the employer to pay six workers in full. The rest of the claims are being mediated, it said.

“MOM has debarred both companies, as well as the company directors involved, from hiring foreign workers,” it added.

The affected workers are also getting help from the ministry.

MOM said that it has asked the companies’ security bond insurers to help pay the workers and has also asked the companies’ clients to make advance payments.

A client has paid $100,000 and the ministry will “see to it that the sums are used to pay the salaries owed to their workers first”.

The companies have also undertaken to provide food and accommodation to the workers, MOM noted.

The affected workers had worked at the companies for about a year.

Several of them said that they had mostly worked on estate upgrading projects in Housing Board estates.

“We built (covered) linkways in MacPherson, Sengkang, Boon Keng and Yishun,” said foreman Motin Abdul, 28.

The men are paid between $18 and $20 a day, or between $468 and $520 a month in basic pay.

“(With) overtime, we earn about $1,000 a month,” Mr Motin said.

But the workers have not been able to send money to their families in Bangladesh for several months.

Foreman Miah Razzak, 38, said, his eyes welling up with tears: “My wife give birth – a baby girl – December. No money to go hospital.”

Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority records showed that Mr Rafiqul, who is in his 50s, set up HBB Engineering – where he is the director and sole shareholder – in May 2012.

A year later, he set up C-Plus Engineering. He is its sole shareholder. Singaporean Brandon Koo En Quan, who is in his 20s, is the director.

When contacted over the phone, Mr Rafiqul would only say: “Nothing happened.”

He declined to answer any questions.

When asked why the workers had waited as long as eight months before they complained to MOM, Mr Motin said: “Boss say if we complain, he cancel work permit and send us home.”

Transient Workers Count Too vice-president Russell Heng said workers have a real fear of being sent home because they would have already paid thousands of dollars to work here.

“MOM’s advice to workers to complain early does not take into account the reality of the situation,” he said.

In response, the ministry said: “Workers should never feel deterred from coming forward to MOM early.

“If the employer attempts to send them home without settling the owed salaries, the workers can and should approach the (Immigration and Checkpoints Authority) officers at the airport and they will be assisted and referred to MOM, foiling any forced repatriation attempts.”

tohyc@sph.com.sg

2

Number of companies owned by Mr A. B. M. Rafiqul Islam with workers disgruntled over unpaid wages.

6

Number of workers paid in full by the employer, after MOM stepped in. The rest of the claims are being mediated.

$100k

Amount paid by a company client. The ministry will “see to it that the sums are used to pay the salaries owed to their workers first”.

Read also: Labour Court can’t make employer pay
Over $11,000 raised for foreign worker who was owed wages
Give Labour Court more power to protect workers
Injured Bangladeshi worker unable to recover $9k from boss

This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

Public healthcare institutions do not make a profit on the drugs they prescribe, said Health Minister Gan Kim Yong in Parliament yesterday.

“Our public healthcare institutions are not-for-profit organisations,” he said. “While the drug prices include a margin, this is to offset overheads and operations costs… They are not profit margins.

“In fact, last year, we provided a total of $4.3 billion of funding to our public healthcare institutions to support their operations, to keep our healthcare costs low.”

The issue was brought up by Mr Low Thia Khiang (Aljunied GRC), who said that some people still find medication expensive.

He asked for the profit margins of drugs sold in public hospitals, and questioned the effectiveness of measures taken to bring medication costs down, especially for those with chronic ailments.

“Based on feedback from residents, some Singaporeans still find the cost of medicine high,” Mr Low said. “I believe this is partly due to doctors prescribing drugs for a long duration, or prescribing non-standard drugs.”

Addressing the issue later, Mr Gan said the Agency for Care Effectiveness, which was set up to look for treatments with “good outcomes at affordable costs”, will issue its first set of guidelines on drugs in May.

Minister of State for Health Lam Pin Min added that the agency will issue more guidelines in July on medications for Type 2 diabetes and how to manage pre-diabetes.

These will help patients and doctors make better choices on cost- effective medical treatment.

Dr Lam said the agency recently evaluated two classes of diabetes drugs. One was found to be “significantly more cost-effective”.

The drug is now listed under the Medication Assistance Fund, and eligible patients can apply for financial support for it.

The fund helps people who need expensive non-standard drugs, said Mr Gan, adding that substantial subsidies are given for standard medication at public healthcare institutions.

linettel@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 10, 2017.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.