SINGAPORE - From Jan 1, residents across the island will all pay the same fee for rubbish collection, as the last remaining four sectors join the National Environment Agency's (NEA) uniform fee scheme.
The fee, inclusive of goods and services tax, is $7.49 per month for Housing Board premises and $24.81 per month for landed property.
The change means an increase in fees for the four sectors that are finally joining the scheme: Ang Mo Kio-Toa Payoh, Hougang-Punggol, Woodlands-Yishun and Tanglin-Bukit Merah.
Currently, HDB residents in those sectors pay between $4.82 (Ang Mo Kio-Toa Payoh) and $5.81 (Hougang-Punggol) a month for the service. The landed property rates range from $17.12 (Ang Mo Kio-Toa Payoh) to $19.75 (Hougang-Punggol and Woodlands-Yishun).
The uniform fee scheme was introduced in 2012 to get households to move towards paying a common fee for rubbish collection services, based on housing type. This was to allow the nine public waste collection sectors to be consolidated down to six.
This consolidation will allow the public waste collection industry "to realise efficiency gains and raise standards and productivity", the NEA said on Monday.
"This will lessen the impact of rising costs in labour and operations on refuse collection fees, and help to moderate fees in future," it added.
Eligible lower and middle-income households also have U-Save rebates automatically credited to their utilities accounts, which will help to offset the fee rise.
The uniform fee will be reviewed every two years and is next due for review in January 2017. The public can call the NEA's hotline at 1800-2255-632 for more information about the public waste collection scheme.
