AMOUNT COLLECTED FROM CERTIFICATES OF ENTITLEMENT (Expenditure)

Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Minister for Communications how does he intend to spend the sum of $693 million which was paid by successful Certificate of Entitlement tenderers in 1991.

The Minister for Communications (Mr Mah Bow Tan): Mr Speaker, Sir, for the record, the amount of $693 million was the total revenue collected from COEs since the inception of the scheme which was in May 1990 until March 1992. For 1991 alone, the total revenue collected was $338 million.

Sir, like other Government revenues, this revenue has been credited to the Consolidated Fund from which Government expenditures are financed.

The Government has invested heavily on transport infrastructure. Over the last five years, the Government has spent over $1,500 million on building and maintaining roads, and building bus interchanges. The construction of the MRT has cost the Government $5,000 million. Another $1,400 million will be spent on the MRT extension to Woodlands. And if the ring road tunnel project is found feasible, this will mean another $4,000 million to build. To put things in perspective, for this last project alone, the underground ring road tunnel system, it would take more than 10 years of COE revenue, at current rates, to pay for the cost.

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Does the Minister agree with me that what he has said are all budgeted for? And in the case of this $693 million, these monies were not budgeted for. They are extra monies, so to speak, that have come into the hands of the Government. Is the Minister willing to use this money perhaps to educate motorists, to improve the skills of motorists and other useful devices or means to improve the traffic system?

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Sir, the Government is always willing to spend money to upgrade and improve the public transport infrastructure and also to ensure and enhance safety on the roads, and this has been done all the time. Whether it will use money from COEs to do this is, as I said, not material in this case, because COE monies are collected for a specific purpose, which is to control congestion on the roads. And if money is to be spent on a good cause to enhance safety on the roads, it will be spent.

Mr Chiam See Tong: Does the Minister agree with me, as I have earlier said, that these monies were not budgeted for? They are like a windfall to the Government. They are extra monies.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Sir, the money from the COEs was derived from a specific purpose. The fact that they are additional revenues is not the issue. As for the purposes for which this money is to be spent, it is up to the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of National Development to justify any expenditure, whether it be for extra roads or education of motorists, as the Member has suggested, or in defraying the cost of motoring in other ways, or defraying the cost of public transport in other ways, such as has been done in providing infrastructure.