Question
Mr Gan Thiam Poh:
To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what is the current percentage
of mobile phone ownership for each income group; and (b) whether the Ministry
will consider defining basic necessities to include mobile phones when
calculating the cost of living, especially in light of the Government's push
towards a Smart Nation.
Oral Answer (to be attributed
to Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Mr Chee Hong Tat)
- Based on data from the latest
Household Expenditure Survey published by the Department of Statistics, the
mobile phone ownership rate is high across all household income groups. For
instance, the proportion of resident households with mobile phones ranged from
88.7 per cent for the lowest 20 per cent of households by income to 99.7 per
cent for the 61st to 80th percentiles of households by income.[1]
- Mobile phones and their
related subscription fees and call charges are included in the consumption
basket used to compute the Consumer Price Index (CPI-All Items), which in turn is
used as a proxy to measure changes in the cost of living of resident households.
Between 2012 and 2017, the communications category of CPI-All Items, which
largely consists of mobile phones and related services, saw a price decline of
0.2 per cent per annum on average as compared to the 0.6 per cent per annum increase
in the overall CPI-All Items. The decline in communications costs faced by
households reflects the increasingly vibrant and competitive telecommunications
market.
- More broadly, the Government
recognises that mobile phones are an important enabler for many of the digital
services that we want to provide to our citizens. Guided by the Digital
Readiness Blueprint, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) is
looking into providing support to those who do not have access to such devices.
In assisting low-income households with financial difficulties, the Ministry of
Social and Family Development (MSF) also includes their communications needs in
the ComCare assistance provided.
[1] The Household
Expenditure Survey 2012/13 collects detailed information on the latest
consumption expenditure of resident households in Singapore. Based on the
ranking of all resident households by their household income from all sources per
household member, the proportion of resident households with mobile phones for
the 21-40th, 41-60th, 81-100th per cent of households by income was 98.3 per
cent, 99.0 per cent and 99.4 per cent, respectively. Many of these households
own more than one mobile phone. Household income includes employer CPF
contributions.