SINGAPORE – Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates for some gantries will be revised from Monday, Aug 1.

Two gantries on the Northbound CTE after PIE will have its rates increased by 50 cents.

From 6pm – 6.30pm, rates will be increased from the current $0.50 to $1.

From 6.30pm – 7.30pm, rates will increase from $1.50 to $2.

And, from 7.30pm – 8pm, rate will rise to $1 from the current $0.50.

Rates will decrease by $1 for two gantries on the MCE westbound before the exit to Maxwell Road and on slip road to Marina Coastal Drive.

From 7.30am – 8am, rates will be $3, down from the current $2.

The rates for the other gantries will remain unchanged, said a statement by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

The changes come after the LTA completed its quarterly review of traffic conditions on ERP-priced roads and expressways.

The next ERP review will take place in November 2016 for the fourth quarterly rate review of 2016, said the statement.

spanaech@sph.com.sg

Relocate the top primary schools so that access to them can be more equal in the long run – this is one of the suggestions arising from a study done by two Raffles Institution (RI) alumni last year.

Another is to reduce the priority given to groups such as children of alumni as well as parent volunteers and community leaders.

These proposals arose from a study that showed that better primary schools tend to be located in more affluent estates.

The study was done by Mr Deepak Warrier, 21, who will be going to New York University next month to read economics, and Mr Pu Liang, also 21, who is studying computer science and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States.

Mr Warrier said: “Our study started from the initial observation that many of the supposed brand-name schools are in the Bukit Timah area.

“But previous research has shown that their presence doesn’t have much impact on nearby property prices – in other words, the presence of elite schools makes little difference.”

The duo measured schools by the number of awards they had received from the Ministry of Education, and placed them in three clusters based on the cost of homes in their locations.

The schools were given a ranking based on the number of awards they earned from 1990 to 2014.

These awards recognise academic and non-academic achievements, including school performance, teaching and administrative processes, as well as co-curricular activities.

Housing price data was gathered in July last year from the Singapore Real Estate Exchange portal, which tracks home prices.

Out of 190 primary schools, 33 were in Cluster 1, which had the highest property prices.

These schools, mostly in the Bukit Timah and East Coast areas, were on average ranked about 40 places higher than their counterparts in Clusters 2 and 3.

The next two sets of 100 and 57 schools were placed in Cluster 2 and 3, respectively, with the latter having the lowest housing prices.

Mr Warrier said there were some outliers such as Rosyth School, which was highly ranked but located in a Cluster 2 neighbourhood.

There were also some schools in Cluster 1 which were not as highly ranked but are in expensive estates.

“But the trend – that the best primary schools are concentrated in expensive estates, perhaps for historical reasons – still held overall. This creates inequities as the primary school registration system gives high priority to home-school distance,” Mr Warrier noted.

“But the good news is that there is little significant difference in school quality between Clusters 2 and 3. This means that the neighbourhoods with the mid to low property prices have a range of school types.

“It’s not the case that the cheapest neighbourhoods have all the lower-ranked schools,” he said.

He and Mr Liang worked on the research and paper over a few months last year.

They submitted the paper to the Singapore Policy Journal in September last year, and it was published earlier this year.

The journal, which was started in 2014, is run by students at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The publication invites students and researchers to write thoughtful analyses of Singapore policy.

“There are inherent inequalities in a cohort of students with different resources. Schools cannot amplify these differences,” said Mr Warrier.

“In the US, for instance, public schools are funded by local property taxes – a school in a wealthy district gets more resources,” he said.

“By and large, we’re doing better than other countries. But we still shouldn’t be magnifying inequalities by allowing children with wealthier and more well-connected parents to get into better schools,” he added.

ateng@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 25, 2016.
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Victims of phone scams who hand their money over to crooks impersonating bank staff are unlikely to be compensated, lawyers warned yesterday.

Last Monday, OCBC Bank reported a sharp rise in scams involving conmen impersonating its employees; around 30 customers are believed to have been duped, losing tens of thousands of dollars.

However, lawyers told The Straits Times that such victims would be liable for the money they lost due to the voluntary nature of the transactions.

“If they did so fully aware of the advice and warnings, then it becomes their responsibility,” said Mr Rajan Supramaniam, a lawyer at Hilborne Law. “In helping with police investigations, the bank will provide all relevant information. But it will not compensate the victims for their losses…”

OCBC has lodged a police report about the scam and advised those who lost money to do the same.

DBS has also been affected, though POSB, Citibank, UOB and Maybank said they were not aware of any phone scams in which their staff were impersonated.

All the banks advised their customers not to reveal personal details or confidential information, such as PIN numbers, over the phone.

They also urged customers to check the legitimacy of the caller, by calling the banks’ main lines.

Mr Supramaniam explained to customers who have been cheated that the starting point for seeking legal recourse is to make a police report.

“They can also pursue the issue with the bank, by going through a lawyer,” he added. “I have handled cases involving a wrong transfer of money.”

Mr Shashi Nathan, a partner at WithersKhattarWong, said that seeking compensation from the bank depends on the facts of each case.

“The bank might have a protocol to check before any transactions are made, usually for larger amounts. Failure to follow such protocol means the bank was negligent to the customer, and the victim can make a claim for negligence.”

He also explained that the bank and police both have to trace where the money went, and find the origins of the soliciting of information.

“Criminals these days are very sophisticated, and most of the time they are based outside of Singapore,” said Mr Nathan.

“It is especially hard to track due to the multitude of transactions.”

fabkoh@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 25, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.