Monday, July 24, 2006

Transport Hikes : SMRT S$103.6M FY2006 Net Profit


SMRT plans fare hikes for its bus, MRT, LRT services
By Noor Mohd Aziz, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 24 July 2006 2010 hrs

SMRT Corporation is planning to raise fares for its bus, MRT and LRT services.

It will apply for a fare adjustment by the August 1 deadline set by the Public Transport Council.

The SMRT Corporation says its total operating costs have ballooned by 20% this year because of the increase in diesel prices.

The fare hike will follow the PTC's formula of a maximum increase of 1.7%, which translates to a rise of one or two cents, if approved.

SMRT President and CEO Saw Phaik Hwa says that its proposed fare hike will not be sufficient to mitigate rising diesel costs.

It however supports the government's call for smaller and regular fare increases. - CNA/ir
Source : Channel NewsAsia


Transport fees are going up across the board as part of the "election promises". Taxi fares had already gone up for a couple of weeks, now it's the other transport companies' turn to have their fingers in the pie. What more, they can't choose a more auspicious day as there is an outrage of the NE line this afternoon.

While claiming that the proposed fare hike will not be sufficient to migrate rising diesel costs, SMRT had not done too shabbily in the profits columns. From their company website: SMRT Achieves S$103.6M in Full Year FY2006 Net Profit (beware pdf file) dated 28 April 2006.

Let me skip through all those figures and go to the statement by the President and CEO of SMRT Corporation, Saw Phaik Hwa.


Saw Phaik Hwa.

"Taking into account the current operating environment, we have performed well and therefore, recommend higher dividends for our shareholders this year. From the growth in retail and advertising, our strategy in the non-fare sectors has certainly paid off. We will continue to intensify our efforts to grow ridership, expand retail space, create more innovative advertising platforms in our public transport system, pursue overseas opportunities to raise the profit contribution from non-fare sectors, and build greater value for our shareholders."





It seems that SMRT is very healthy and doing very well, therefore I don't see the justification of the hikes due to oil prices. The only reason is that they want to bulid greater "shareholder value" as they are now a "private company".

Thank you PAP for keeping your GE promises! I know you always deliver!


Updated: I can't resist uploading the photo. Credits: HWZ forums.


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posted by wert | Monday, July 24, 2006 | Email This!


1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

They are really enriching themselves at the expense of commuters. I don,t understand nobody raise a 'cry foul' on this.If this happens in Hongkong, there would be a massive protest.Singaporeans are by nature cowardly and stupid.I would boldly say that these big fishes are eating the small fishes.

Singaporeans like to complain, but they don,t how to take concrete action against these bastards.

Wed Jul 26, 04:35:00 PM 2006  

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