No, you won't get fined for 'choping' seats at hawker centres: NEA

No, you are not going to be fined for "choping" seats at hawker centres.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) clarified on Apr. 9, 2025, via a Facebook post, that there are no penalties for reserving a seat at food centres.

There are also no so-called "chope-free" zones either, NEA added.

NEA was responding to messages that had apparently been circulating online claiming that NEA was instituting a penalty or fine for "choping" seats.

One Facebook post, made on Apr. 8, 2025, appeared to make such claims.

It is unclear if the post was made tongue-in-cheek but it falsely alleged that NEA was introducing "chope-free zones", and instituting an "etiquette correction" initiative.

According to this user, the initiative would involve confiscating items used to "chope" seats and requiring a "release fee" of S$2 to get them back.

The post, misleadingly, also falsely quotes a so-called NEA spokesperson:

Dining etiquette woes

The debate over "choping" goes back a long way.

In fact, hawker centres have put in place so-called "no reservation" house rules in the past.

Back in 2017, hawker centres at Our Tampines Hub and Tiong Bahru Market, for instance, introduced a set of house rules including "Don't Chope Seats".

A Straits Times forum letter, back in 2017, also gained traction online for suggesting that "choping" should be "fined" as it "destroys our hard-earned image" of being a so-called "First World country".

Regardless of what you think of the practice, the age-old Singaporean tradition of leaving tissue packets on tables looks here to stay.

Top photo from National Library Board website.