Waste collection fee for residents in four sectors to be raised next year

Waste collection fee for residents in four sectors to be raised next year

Residents in the Ang Mo Kio-Toa Payoh, Hougang-Punggol, Woodlands-Yishun and Tanglin-Bukit Merah sectors will be paying more for waste collection from Jan 1, 2015 onwards.

SINGAPORE: Residents in the Ang Mo Kio-Toa Payoh, Hougang-Punggol, Woodlands-Yishun and Tanglin-Bukit Merah sectors will be paying more for waste collection from Jan 1, 2015 onwards.

HDB households will pay a uniform fee of S$7.49 per month - they used to pay between S$4.82 and S$5.81. Those living in landed homes will pay S$24.81 per month, up from between S$17.12 and S$19.75 previously.

These four sectors are the last to be covered under the Uniform Fee (UF) scheme for the collection of refuse from domestic premises, introduced by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in May 2012. Under this scheme, households in Singapore will pay the same fees for the same tier of refuse collections services.

To help offset the increase in refuse collection fees for the lower- and middle-income households in the affected sectors, U-Save rebates are automatically credited to the utilities accounts of eligible households, NEA said in a media release on Monday (Dec 8).

NEA also said the UF scheme paves the way for the Public Waste Collection (PWC) sectors to be consolidated from the current nine to six sectors progressively, each time a new PWC contract for the respective sector starts.

The consolidation of sectors will allow the public waste collection industry to realise efficiency gains and raise standards and productivity, NEA added. These improvements will lessen the impact of rising costs in labour and operations on refuse collection fees, and help to moderate fees in future, the agency said.

The scheme's next review is scheduled in Jan 2017, and NEA will review it every two years.

Members of the public can find out which PWC sector they belong to at NEA's website.

- CNA/dl

- wong chee tat :)