Announcement of Fee Freeze

Minister for Finance, Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, announced in Parliament today that the current one-year fee freeze on all Government fees that will end on 30 June 2008 will be extended to 31 December 2008.

This press release provides details on what the fee freeze covers.

Scope of Fee Freeze

2. The fee freeze will apply to public services provided by the Government. The major categories of fees that are frozen are as follows:

(i) school fees (primary, secondary, junior college, ITE and polytechnic fees),

(ii) parking charges for carparks maintained by HDB and URA,

(iii) all licence fees, such as driving licence, TV and radio licences

See Annex for more examples.

Fees Not Covered by the Freeze

3. The following are not covered by the freeze:

(i) Fees determined by non-Government entities, e.g. universities,restructured hospitals and town councils, and

(ii) Charges to regulate demand, e.g. ERP

4. The freeze does not apply to regulated services provided by the private sector such as public transport, telecommunication services, and utilities.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE