Surely a misnomer if there was one, but yesterday it struck me like a lightning bolt of common sense and indignation. According to print media, SMRT and SBS Transit have daily ridership of 2mil and 2.5mil per day respectively. Now, this is likely old news to me but it was new to me!
Why the concern? Yeah, sure, we Singaporeans need these Private Public Services. But a rudimentary maths exercise easier than PSLE Maths reveals a few interesting figures. First off though allow me to quote (albeit outdated) some figures given by SMRT and SBS Transit to justify their price hikes circa 2002-2003.
SBS Transit said, “its operating expenses went up 5.6 per cent to $501 million“.
SMRT said, “its expenses went up about 26 per cent to almost $320 million“.
Ok. Now, my maths. Based on a conservative average paid fare per ride of $1.20, SMRT’s and SBS Transit’s daily revenue are $2.4mil and $3mil respectively. Over a fiscal year, this equates to $876mil and $1.095bil respectively.
Hmmm… that means SMRT’s gross profit is $556mil and SBS Transit’s gross profit is $594mil. What the…
This again presses home the need for transparency and reiterates the question: “Should public services be made private?” And if it should, shouldn’t such private companies work like normal private companies and answer or come clean to Singaporeans, since the analogous shareholder to a private public company is the citizen?
Give us the yearly fiscal report! Justify ride prices and price hikes!
