The Affordability Compact (price freedom, compensated budget meals)

No operator or agency may mandate loss-making budget meals or discount absorption as a tenancy condition. Where a budget line is public policy, the state pays the gap between the budget price and a published reference cost, on the public ledger and discoverable through the existing BudgetMealGoWhere portal. Affordability moves to the buyer's side through Makan Vouchers. Follow the Plate finds price freedom is a lossy transfer from diners to hawkers, so it stays tied to certified and new-entrant stalls, with the vouchers beside it.

Who pays

ASK OF GOVERNMENT · BUILDS ON

What it costs

Small; the gap on each meal

the State pays the difference between the cheap price and a published cost of making the meal

What it builds on

NEA does not require budget meals at its own centres; HDB made coffee-shop budget meals voluntary, with a pass-through rent discount, and began collecting stall-rent data (Jan 2026); SEHC per-stall commitments remain, with margins of cents (§1.3).

The ask of Government

Decision

Paying for budget meals where a cheap meal is kept as policy

Instrument

NEA administrative – the value-meal tender condition at operator-run centres becomes voluntary at the pilot centres, with the gap paid, as HDB did for coffeeshops in Jan 2026

Fiscal cost

Small; the gap on each meal

What it buys

Finishes a correction Government has already begun, and moves the policy's cost into the public accounts, where it belongs.

From §7.7.

Who gains

Diners

Prices at certified stalls move with quality – cushioned, for those who need it, by the voucher (§1.4).

Hawkers

If you can pay, you pay what the food is actually worth, and the uncle who made it finally banks the difference (§2.5).

Government

Moves the policy's cost onto the public ledger where it belongs (§7.7).