Elected MPs must pay new S$250 annual Parliament parking fee from 2019

New year new charges.

Jonathan Lim | December 01, 2018, 03:06 PM

It was reported earlier in the year that elected Members of Parliament paid an annual parking fee of S$365.

This covered the cost of parking at Parliament House as well as at HDB carparks.

New charges

However, from 2019, all MPs will have to pay a S$250 fee annually for a permit to park at Parliament House.

The Straits Times reported the clerk of Parliament as saying on Nov. 30.

And this includes Nominated and Non-Constituency MPs who currently use restricted staff parking spaces at Parliament House for free.

From next year, they will also have to pay for the S$250 permit if they do not want to incur hourly charges.

Elected MPs to pay HDB carpark fees

In the course of doing their constituency work, the permit will allow elected MPs to park at HDB housing estates and on parking spaces normally reserved for season parking holders.

However, they will have to pay the prevailing charges for HDB parking spaces.

New charges based on average use

A Ministry of National Development spokesperson told ST that the new parking permit fee is "based on MPs' average annual parking usage at Parliament House, and pegged to Parliament House's public car park rate".

Currently, the Parliament House charges S$1.13 per half hour between 8.01am and 6pm, and S$2.06 per entry between 6.01pm and 8.00am.

S$250 would allow an MP to park at Parliament approximately nine hours per month, assuming they leave before 6pm.

Reactions

Here are some of the comments from ST's Facebook post of this piece of news that received the most reactions: