A letter, from one whose parent are hawkers

This response in Today, by one Huang Lifen, whose parents are hawkers, is posted below ("The dirty world of hawker stall rentals", Today, 30 March):

"I would like to thank Eileen Tan Chwee Lin [I had put up excerpts of her letter on this blog yesterday] for speaking up on behalf of all hawkers.

I could not agree with her more. My parents are hawkers and I have seen them toil long hours just to pay the rent on their stall.

The whole system is flawed. The National Environment Agency (NEA) leases out hawker stalls based on the highest bids, which most of the time are a reasonable $1,200 to $2,400 a month depending on location.

But what actually happens is that the successful bidder, instead of operating the stalls themselve, rents them out.

For most of the stalls my parents have been operating over the years, they are the second or even third tier sub-lessees -- they rent from one person who in turn leases the stall from another person who has successfully bid for the stall.

When the government gives rebates to hawker stall holders, the savings are not passed on to the actual operators but pocketed by the successful bidder.

When a hawker centre closes for cleaning or upgrading, the NEA offers rebates on the stall rentals to help hawkers tide over the period they are unable to operate -- but this money, too, is pocketed by the main lessee.

Even more absurd is that some successful bidders try to resell the right to operate the stall for $10,000 (or more, depending on location), just like COEs for cars.

The offenders, when caught, are fined. But I think this is hardly a deterrent, as these people sometimes have more than one stall earning rental profit and raids are too infrequent to impact their profits.

I think a more effective deterrent would be to confiscate their stall and bar them from renting one again.

This is in the interest of the general public who eat out too. I strongly urge the authorities to stop this kind of profiteering before our fishball noodles and laksa become $10 per serving."