Newsbites – NEA hogs headlines, ST apes MDA

In response to a letter posted on The Real Singapore, the National Environment Agency indicated that those selling tissue paper – commonly seen at hawker centres – are unlicensed hawkers and will be charged a S$120 licence fee to carry out the selling. This was NEA’s atatement on its Facebook page:

Under the Street Hawking Scheme, 362 persons have been issued licences to sell ice-cream, nuts, crackers, canned drinks, costume jewellery, newspapers, phone cards and toiletries. Only eleven sell tissue paper. At a nominal fee of $120/year (equivalent to $10/month), the licence entitles them to peddle their wares at fixed locations without having to pay any rent.
The mobile peddlers selling tissue paper are not licensed. They do not pay any licence fees. Although technically in breach of the laws against itinerant hawking, those peddlers who are needy are referred to the relevant agencies by NEA for appropriate assistance.

NEA did not clarify on how peddlers are evaluated as “needy”, or what steps agencies have taken to assist them.
ST defers to MDA on Stomp issue

In what could possibly be its only coverage on the petition by Robin Li to shut down its own website Stomp, The Straits Times reiterated the statement from the Media Development Authority, which was published last Friday on the agency’s Facebook page. MDA has advised readers as such: “Should you believe that Stomp, together with other class-licensed and individually licensed sites merit stronger regulation, we invite you to propose how the standards should be tightened. Let’s build a healthy online environment together.” Mr Felix Soh [right], digital media editor for The Straits Times was also quoted as saying, “It is sad that those who clamour for the freedom of the Internet are now asking for the closure of a website – just because they don’t like it.”
 
StarHub to charge more for 4G usage
StarHub has been offering its customers access to its 4G network as a free value-added service since September 2012. However, it now plans to charge $2.14 a month for its 4G Speed Boost value-added service which offers up to 75Mbps of surfing speed. this will come into effect in June 2014. StarHub has informed its customers via SMS. It is not sure how this will affect the charging rates for other telcos.