Not the time to talk about imposing environmental tax on SIA amid COVID-19 crisis, says Ong Ye Kung

With the aviation sector battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is “not the time now” to be talking about imposing an environmental tax on Singapore Airlines, said Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung Tuesday. Doing so will worsen the situation for the national carrier, which is trying hard to preserve cash and generate revenue at the moment, he added, responding to a question from Workers’ Party (WP) Member of Parliament Jamus Lim on why the Government would not consider such a tax. Earlier in his ministerial statement which outlined the Government’s strategies to support the struggling aviation sector, Ong described SIA as “far from being out of the woods” despite a recent recapitalisation exercise. One of the ideas that the airline had to generate revenue was to launch flights to nowhere, he noted, although this was later scrapped. “Whichever way SIA had decided, MOT (Ministry of Transport) would always try our best to support our national carrier in times like this,” the minister said in his speech to the House. “What I will not contemplate is to impose on them an environment tax at this time, as Associate Professor Jamus Lim indicated in his question, because that will just worsen the crisis for SIA.” Seeking a clarification after Ong’s ministerial statement, Assoc Prof Lim said it is “entirely possible” that the tax will not have an immediate concern on SIA’s economic viability if it is able to pass on the cost to consumers for instance. The opposition MP also asked if more innovative ways can be considered so that environmental needs “need not be a casualty” to business considerations. “The simple answer is this, we are in a crisis,” Ong replied. “SIA, as I mentioned, is ferrying 1.5% of its passenger volume so it’s not about passing the cost to passengers – there are no passengers to pass (the tax) to now,” he added. <br/>