PERSONAL EXPLANATION

2.00 pm

Mr Tan Soo Khoon (East Coast): Mr Speaker, Sir, thank you for this opportunity to make a personal statement.

Sir, on 9th July 2002, during the debate on the motion on public transport fares, I said the following:

"The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister had told the House in May, when making his Budget statement, that the PTC had decided that there would be no need to raise fares next year as a result of the increase in GST. Little did we know that what the PTC meant was no increase next year did not mean no increase this year! I do not know if you would call this twisted or sardonic humour, but I think it is, almost for sure, not funny at all to Singaporeans. How sure are we that, next year, we will not be told again by the PTC that never mind the increase in GST, but operating and maintenance costs have gone up again and therefore we have to have another increase in fares."

Sir, after my speech, the Minister for Transport rose on a point of clarification. He pointed out that the Deputy Prime Minister had not given the impression that the PTC would not be approving any bus fare increase this year. Mr Yeo quoted what the Deputy Prime Minister had actually said in his Budget statement, and I quote:

"The Public Transport Council (PTC) is currently evaluating proposals from the transport operators to revise fares. PTC is only considering revisions to catch up with operating and maintenance cost increases over the past year."

Mr Yeo went on to quote the DPM:

"The public transport operators have raised with the PTC the issue of the GST increase next year. After considering their views, with the likely increase in GST to 5% and the proposed cut in the corporate income tax, the PTC has decided that there is no need to raise fares next year as a result of the GST increase. The transport operators have accepted this decision."

Sir, my immediate response to Mr Yeo and the House was that I did not think that I had given the impression that the DPM deliberately set out to mislead the House. I have since checked the verbatim report of my speech. I now accept that it suggests that the DPM and the PTC had deliberately misled the House and Singaporeans. Also, in referring to the DPM's speech, I did not inform the House that the DPM had said that the PTC was then evaluating proposals from the transport operators to revise fares to catch up with operating and maintenance cost increases.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I would like to apologise to the House, the Deputy Prime Minister and the PTC for suggesting that the DPM and PTC had misled the House and Singaporeans. There is no basis for that suggestion, and I withdraw it. I would also like to apologise to the House for not pointing out that the DPM had actually informed the House in the Budget statement that the PTC was evaluating proposals to revise fares.