Encourage renting to reduce commuting

Sent to Straits Times Forum Page on 2 April 2012 

The recent large increase in our population has put a strain on our roads and
public transport infrastructure.

While the Government is increasing the capacity of our infrastructure, we should
consider ways to reduce the need to commute to and from work.  We can
encourage more people to live near their place of work, including renting a home nearby.

While the government policy on home ownership has its positive impacts, it
also has the unintended consequence of increasing the demand for
commuting. As people stay rooted in their own homes, they often had to
commute long distances.

We should now review this policy and consider some possible measures to encourage
people live close to their place of work:

- allow the owner to rent out a HDB flat and live in a rented home near the workplace.

- allow the owner to buy a new home to replace an existing home, and apply for waiver
of the stamp duty.

- allow the owner to claim the concessionary property tax rate on one property, even
if it is not owner occupied, so that the owner can choose to live in a rented home
near the workplace.

Tan Kin Lian

Differentiation taken to another degree

This was written on 4 April and scheduled to appear when I am in China.

There is a letter in Today paper that suggests that foreigners should be required to pay higher fares than citizens. This is taking "differentiation" or "discrimination" to an extreme.

The person who made the suggestion thought that it is possible to impose this differentiation using the transit card, but he probably forgot that it was difficult to make the differentiation when the commuter opts to pay by cash, and many poorer and older citizens opt to pay cash.

I have been against unnecessary differentiation in our daily lives. Let the higher income people pay higher taxes and let foreigners pay a levy. After that is done, it is better to better to levy the same charges for transport, health care, education and other basic services needed by the people.

I have also read about the differentiation of GST vouchers according to the type of housing of the citizens. This has turned out to be a source of disputes. Some elderly people live in landed properties, which they bought at a low price several decades ago. They do not have any income and find GST to be a burden.They asked to be eligible for higher GST vouchers,  but the request was repeatedly turned down by the Government. I am saddened by this type of differentiation of GST vouchers.

Showing respect and courtesy

This was written on 4 April and scheduled to appear when I am in China.

There is a tendency for some people to be quite disrespectful when they post comments in the Internet. They make insults and personal attacks and interpret other people's views in a manner that is not logical or reasonable.

Sometimes, I wonder if these comments are from younger people who has not learned how to respect other people's views. Often, they pass judgment about other people that are unwarranted. I worry that this type of behavior could be due to our environment, which promotes the concept of "excellence", "me first" and a self-centered outlook.

But, I have also seen this type of behavior in older people, so it is not a reflection of the behavior of younger people. More likely, it is a reflection of our environment or, what I describe as "our culture".

I do not wish to be critical about our culture, and only wish to point it out, so that people realize that there is a need to show respect for the views of other people, and to avoid insults and personal attacks of a direct nature.  I hope that my views are taken in a positive light.

Make it easy for customers to use internet banking

I hope that our banks make it easier for their customers

to make payments using internet banking.

DBS Bank requires me, as a customer, to register a payee and to 

authenticate the payee with my mobile phone. This is on

top of logging in to the account with my login name, PIN and

the token (2FA authentication).

As I have reached the limit of the number of my registered payees

I have to find one payee to delete, so that the new payee can be

added. 

When creating the payee, I must make sure that I have entered the 

bank account correctly, as the system does not show me the name 

of the payee. After going through so much hassle, it is easy to make 

a mistake at this juncture.

Previously, I have asked DBS Bank to provide an option for the customer 

to make small payments, say less than $500, without the need to go 

through the complicated process of registering, authenticating and 

deleting a payee. The customer will probably choose this option for a 

once-off payment. 

It would also be useful for the name of the payee to be displayed (after 

the bank account has been entered). This is more important than the

requirement to create a payee record.

DBS Bank was not able to accede to my request. I suspect that the 

current practice must be mandated by the regulator, i.e. Monetary Authority of 

Singapore. I hope that the regulator can give their comment on this issue.

Tan Kin Lian

No blogger in China

I will be in China for the next five days. I remembered that China does not provide access to Blog, so you will not bear from me for a while. However, I am scheduling some blog posts to appear over the next few days.

Honest and dishonest behavior

I have been invited on a few occasions to speak to university undergraduates about the relationship between business and society. I asked this question - "Do you know what is honest and dishonest behavior? Will you make a profit by making another person poorer?"

This question always stunned the students. They take it for granted that to make a profit is the right thing to do, and do not realize that there is a line beyond which they are acting dishonestly and cheating another party.

The penal code defines "cheating" as misleading another person or telling untruths knowingly and money or other property has passed. This type of behavior seems to be quite common, under the pretext of "caveat emptor" or "let the buyer beware". It is an excuse for dishonest behavior and worse, it is sanctioned by the state that promotes this concept.

The phrase "property has passed' makes the dishonest behavior a crime that will be prosecuted by the state. If there is no passing of property, i.e. lies told between people, it does not become a crime punishable by the state, but is nevertheless a dishonest behavior.

It is all right to make a reasonable profit for one's efforts and risk. There is a market rate for services and products. It is dishonest to misrepresent the product in a dishonest way, e.g. to state what it is not, and to sell it at an inflated price. This is "cheating" and is punishable by the state.

Our society has become quite dishonest in recent years. It is time to realize the difference between honest and dishonest behavior and to encourage people to be honest. Business corporations and the Government must set a good example for ordinary citizens to follow.

Tan Kin Lian

Easy way to make online payment

I wrote this letter to the Pro-Enterprise Panel. I suggested an easy way for the public to make online payment. I hope that the Panel will encourage government agencies to adopt this suggestion.
http://tankinlian.com/admin/file.aspx?id=636