SINGAPORE: In Parliament earlier this week, Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Louis Chua (Sengkang) spoke on improving the affordability of hawker food.
This is arguably one of the cultural anchors of Singapore society, one that was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.
However, due to shrinking profit margins, high rental fees, long working hours, and the manpower crunch, offering affordable meals has become more of a challenge for hawkers.
A number of hawkers have left the industry in the recent past due to various challenges. For example, last month, a young hawker said she would be closing her S$1.20 min jiang kueh stall in Geylang East after six years, saying that the long hours she’s had to spend on the stall have taken a toll on her body. Eva Lee told 8days.sg of the injuries to her wrist and back that she’s sustained while in the trade.
In March of 2025, Shang De Vegetarian, a long-running vegetarian stall at Serangoon Road, closed its doors after the hawker learned that rental rates would allegedly rise by more than threefold, going from $930 to $3,000, because of a new operator.
In the same month, a 73-year-old hawker was seen at a job fair in Marina Bay Sands. Mr Wong had owned Wu Xiang Shrimp Cake at Bukit Merah Central, which closed down in January 2025, when rent and utilities reached more than S$5,000 each month.
Mr Chua said he supported the government’s decision to no longer make the Budget Meal programme mandatory for HDB coffee shops, noting that the nutritional value of budget meals is often sacrificed to keep them affordable.
He noted, however, that stalls at Socially-Conscious Enterprise Hawker Centres (SEHCs) are still required to provide affordable meals. The Sengkang MP gave the example of stall holders at Bukit Canberra Hawker Centre who had been obliged to provide free meals for low-income residents out of pocket, though this has since been discontinued.
“Meanwhile, the discounts offered to Pioneer Generation, Merdeka Generation, and certain CHAS cardholders are absorbed by the hawkers themselves. Although many Singaporeans feel the pinch of rising hawker food prices, it is unfair for our hawkers to shoulder the direct responsibility for providing affordable meals,” he said.
Mr Chua reiterated a proposal he first made during the Hawker Motion in 2024 for the Government to provide discounts for lower-income Singaporeans based on their CHAS card. The Community Health Assist Scheme card allows Singaporeans to receive subsidies for medical and dental care at participating General Practitioner (GP) and dental clinics. The colour of a person’s CHAS card is based on household monthly income per person or the annual value (AV) of the home, and determines the amount of subsidy they receive.
He pointed out that the cost of the discounts should not fall on the shoulders of hawkers, but should be subsidised by the government.
“Rather than subsidise high net worth individuals who, like low-income households, all receive the same amount of CDC vouchers, the subsidy would be better directed to those who need them the most,” he said, adding that this would make the responsibility of ensuring that hawker meals would be affordable, well-balanced and nutritious would be shared much more equitably.
“By enhancing governmental support to ensure affordable meals whilst securing the livelihoods of our hawkers, younger players could come in and rejuvenate the hawker scene, whilst bucking the trend of a rising number of veteran hawkers opting to call it quits and retire,” added the MP. /TISG
