Justice Bao Gong: To Serve & To Protect: CHEAPEST FOOD AND DRINKS IN TOWN!

Commodity Prices have FALLEN DRASTICALLY, yet there are still hawkers who sell SKY HIGH PRICES, profiteering from the cheaper commodity prices but pocketing the differences in savings.

There are however, GOOD HEARTED hawkers who continue to sell food CHEAP and provide GOOD service.

Here are some examples of the Good Hearted vendors who sell Food and drinks at Pre-year 2000 PRICES:

CHEAPEST COFFEE STALL IN TOWN AREA:
MAXWELL HAWKER CENTRE

FIRST ROW STALL PARALLEL TO MAXWELL ROAD FACING THE ROAD

(From the toilet, walk towards URA Blg, about 6-7 stalls away)

(There are 2 coffee stalls, the first one nearer to toilet is slightly more expensive,

the SECOND coffee stall is the CHEAPEST COFFEE STALL in town!)

(When you're there, look for HELEN)


Here are their PRICES: Know of any cheaper prices in town? I doubt it.
Here are their Wonderful Prices:



SUPPORT CHEAP PRICES! SUPPORT THEM! LOOK FOR HELEN!

Justice Bao Gong: Increase in Electricity Prices NOT justified

(Source: The Straits Times)


Good morning Singapore and the Rest of the World,

This is a good opportunity for everyone in the world to see what really happens in Singapore- Whatever the Government says is always correct and everyone else is wrong, regardless of the facts that are backing the man in the street.

Attached is the reply from Director of Corporate Communications, Energy Market Authority (EMA), which we assume should be responsible for the increase in the electricity tariffs, since they replied in the forum to our good man, Mr Bruno Serrien, who has written in to question on the increase of electricity tariffs at a time when oil prices have been falling.

Mr Bruno noted that electricity prices have shot up 48% in the past 12 months, whereas oil prices have went down. The reply from the director of Corporate Communications was that price of electricity is pegged to the cost of fuel, and she claims that the increase was necessary because of the 38% spike in FORWARD fuel oil price from US$83 to US$115 per barrel between April and July this year. She also mentioned they will also continue to help households to conserve energy and thus save on our electricity bills.

OK, let us analyse the statistics: From October 2007 last year, oil prices closed at US$81.27pb. Today's Crude Oil nov contract is US$73.07 as I type. Thus, there is a decrease of 10% in oil prices since last year, but electricity tariffs have went up by 48% in the past 12 months: So am I doing the sums wrongly or is it the Energy Market Authority (EMA)? Details of world oil prices can be found here.

Maybe we give the director the benefit of doubt, as there was a substantial increase in oil prices in the previous quarter. So, going by her calculation, by next quarter, we should have a decrease in electricity prices by 58%. Let us see how electricity is priced next quarter then. Bookmark our page & follow this blog & wait for our update on this issue.

In light of the need for more transparency and disclosure following the financial turmoil debacle such as structured products being widely mis-sold to retirees who have lost their life savings, Singaporeans and the world would want to see greater disclosure and transparency on how pricing is actually calculated- If there is no arbritrary increases in pricing, then why shy away from disclosure and transparency?

We hope that the increases are not passed down to consumers because of poor market hedging. We welcome ALL comments from everyone around the world. If you are an expert in oil and electricity pricing, kindly do assist the man in the street by giving us a comment on how oil prices affect retail electricity prices.

Your humble servant.


References:
The Straits Times
Energy Information Administration

Inflation: Excessive Rising Cost of Food Amidst Lower Commodity Prices

Excessive rising prices are putting a heavy financial strain on the middle and lower class citizens. Transport prices rise, gasoline prices rise, newspaper charges rise (Noticed recently the price increase in your newspapers?), More and more Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries are sprouting everywhere and traffic jams are becoming worse correspondingly and it seems people are paying more to get more jams. Even our neighbours from Malaysia who visits Singapore finds prices in Singapore exhorbitantly high (Check out a blog from our Malaysian counterpart who visited Singapore yesterday : http://www.lovechildrenright.com/2008/10/our-singapore-trip.html ).

However, it is the constant increase in FOOD PRICES that places the greatest strain on the man on the street.

The previous rally in commodities have have ended or at least, corrected and in view of the financial turmoil facing the world right now, world demand for oil is expected to drift much lower, led by America, which accounts for a quarter of the world’s oil consumption (Source: http://www.nationmaster.com).

Price of commodities have dropped, including rice. As at June 2008, The Straits Times article ‘Price of rice likely to fall in next few months’ quoted that the price of fragrant rice could tumble to US$1,000 (S$1,370) a tonne by year-end, importers forecast.

As at 2nd October 2008, the quote for commercial rice from Thailand is about USD$625 - $690 per metric tonne (which is approximately SGD$940 per tonne). That is a hefty drop in the price of rice. The prices of other food commodities are also falling in tandem, but prices of hawker food still remains high. A bowl of rice used to cost 20cents before the commodities rally, and every hawker took the opportunity during the commodity price rally to increase it to 50cents to a dollar per bowl. Now that commodity prices have fallen, why is it that their food prices still remain high?

An interesting highlight of how much food prices have escalated: With reference to Mr Brown’s article on rising prices: He has commented his roti prata has increased price by 10cents, and that was dated 3 July 2006. During 2006, the cost of a prata kosong was 50cents, fast forward 2 years now it costs from $1.00 to $1.30! and all these within 2 years! The cost of retail food has been increasing at a much higher rate than the price of commodities. So, somewhere along the food chain, the savings from the drop in commodity prices is not being passed down to the ultimate consumers. Someone along the food chain must have been making a tidy profit at the expense of the man on the street.

One would think it is the hawkers that are profiting from this because commodity prices have been dropping but he is still selling at the same high price. Others would think it is the landlord who is profiting from this, because the landlord raises the rent, which in turn forces the hawker to raise the price. Then another group of analysts says that the landlords are forced to increase the rent because they bought the property at high prices (We will talk about property prices and its effect on the ordinary man on the street on a later post). So, ultimately, the source of this rising food prices starts from property prices, which then results in higher rentals, which in turn results in higher food prices and the final consumer suffers the consequences. Of course, along the complicated chain, every party adds on a premium as profit and the cost snowballs to the final consumer by way of a $1.30 kosong roti prata or a 50cents small bowl of rice or 50 cents more for a few strands of extra noodles. Life is becoming more and more difficult for the middle and lower class Singaporean.

What we can do is to highlight the various eateries that charge reasonably cheap food and also those that charge high and yet cut down on the ingredients for the benefit of everyone.

We welcome suggestions and comments of eateries and we will post them for the benefit of all.
Your humble servant.

References:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_251740.html

http://www.riceonline.com/uploads/prices2.htm

http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2006/07/today_sporeans_.html