From next year, MPs will be charged $250 a year if they want to park at Parliament House for official business, the Clerk of Parliament said yesterday. The new parking permit can be used by all MPs, including Non-Constituency and Nominated MPs.
Elected MPs can also use the permit to park in any Housing Board (HDB) carpark, including season parking spaces, when they do their constituency work. But they will have to pay the prevailing short-term parking charges through the electronic parking system or the Parking.SG mobile app.
Currently, an annual parking permit, which only elected MPs can apply for, costs $365 and covers parking charges at Parliament House as well as HDB carparks. The Ministry of National Development (MND) had said in June that MPs are not charged the full HDB season parking rate because they "do not park overnight or full day at their constituencies".
As for Non-Constituency and Nominated MPs, they currently park at the restricted staff carpark in Parliament House for free.
The parking issue came under the spotlight earlier this year following the Government's decision to start charging teachers for parking in their schools.
It raised questions on whether MPs paid similar fees when in Parliament on official business.
In response to queries from The Straits Times yesterday, an MND spokesman said the Government reviews carpark charges regularly.
She added that the new $250 parking permit was "based on MPs' average annual parking usage at Parliament House, and pegged to Parliament House's public carpark rate".
