CRASH HELMETS (Action against price increase)

Mr Teong Eng Siong asked the Minister for Communications whether and what action has been or is being taken against unscrupulous vendors who have unreasonably raised the price of crash helmets since the introduction of legislation making it compulsory for the holder of a provisional licence to wear a crash helmet while driving a motorcycle.

The Minister for Communications (Mr Yong Nyuk Lin): Mr Speaker, Sir, there is no intention on the part of my Ministry to control either the import or sale price of crash helmets at present, as there are more than adequate stocks in Singapore to meet the known demands. We will let the law of supply and demand take its natural course.

The Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR), which is the responsible authority for testing and approving crash helmets, have sample-tested consignments totalling 30,000 crash helmets over the last l½ years, and 26,841 or 90 per cent have been approved for sale in Singapore. Whilst the number of provisional licence holders of motor cycles and motor scooters who are required by law to wear crash helmets as from the 1st of last month is only 14,000, the number of new applications for such provisional licences is estimated at around 1,000 per month.

It is pertinent to point out that the necessity to get SISIR's approval before crash helmets are permitted to be put on sale in Singapore adds only an average of 60 cents to the imported cost per helmet. If the consignments are larger, the cost of sampling-tests would go down even lower.