HAWKER STALLS (Transfer to spouses or children)

Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon asked the Minister for the Environment, in view of the policy to increasingly privatise hawker centres, whether he will consider allowing hawkers to transfer their stalls to their spouses or children instead of letting them remain vacant.

The Minister for the Environment (Mr Mah Bow Tan): Sir, in the past, stalls were allotted to the poor and to resettle street hawkers to help them earn a living. As such, the stalls were heavily subsidised to keep rents low. They still are. It has therefore been necessary to make the stalls non-transferable. However, on compassionate grounds, my Ministry does allow an immediate family member of a deceased hawker to continue renting the stall, if the family depends on the stall for a living. Between January 1992 and June 1993, there were 385 of such requests from family members of deceased hawkers. Of these, 353 or 92% were approved. The remaining cases were not approved as the families were not dependent on the stalls for a living.

As recently announced by the Prime Minister, the Government plans to sell stalls to incumbent hawkers. After they own their stalls, these hawkers can sell, transfer or sub-let their stalls to others. Details of the sales scheme are being worked out.