Proposals · Follow the Plate
The Plate Ledger and Plate Tracker
A one-page yearly account of where a typical plate's dollar goes, by type of landlord, built from twenty indicators agencies largely already hold.
Singapore publishes 3 of the 20 tracker indicators regularly, 10 in part and 7 not at all. A margin-spread line compares retail and wholesale prices of hawker staples with the import price index, quarterly, so that if the middle of the chain ever starts taking more, it shows; a floor-cost line sets rent, conservancy, table cleaning and dishwashing, before GST, by type of centre, each year. The Ledger would be produced by the independent evaluator from published series, aggregated administrative data and a paid voluntary panel of about 300 stalls, and released with the Singapore Hawkers' Celebration and Awards. Three numbers come first: hawker income and hours from CPF's self-employed records, coffeeshop stall rents by town from HDB, and the rent NEA and HDB collect as landlord. No stall is required to report and no individual stall's figures are published.
Who pays
The library gives this mechanism no who-pays tag of its own.
What it builds on
Hawker-food CPI and import price indices (SingStat, monthly) and the Household Expenditure Survey are the three indicators published regularly today (Follow the Plate, D.8).
The ask of Government
- Decision
- Publish a yearly Plate Ledger: one page showing where a typical plate's dollar goes, by type of landlord, built from data NEA, HDB, SingStat and CPF already hold (Follow the Plate, D.8).
From Follow the Plate, D.1.
Who gains
- Government
- Would show the net position of the state in the trade: rent collected as landlord beside the support it pays out (Follow the Plate, D.8.1).
Where the library discusses it
Follow the Plate, D.8 · Follow the Plate, D.8.1 · Follow the Plate, D.1 · Method, Levers and Data, F.2.3 · §2.10
Note: Not itemised in §7.7; the ask is stated in Follow the Plate, D.1. Indicator-level detail is in data/tracker.json (maintained by hand).
Related proposals
Sources
- The Online Citizen. KF Seetoh rejects hawker heritage rationale, says rental figures omit what stallholders pay (2026-09-15)
- Ministry of Trade and Industry. Examining the cost drivers of hawker food prices (Economic Survey feature article, 1Q 2015) (2015)
- Institute of Policy Studies (Teo Kay Key, Hanniel Lim, Mindy Chong). The Cost of Eating Out: Findings from the Makan Index 2.0, IPS Exchange Series No. 24 (2023-03)
- SG Parliament (unofficial reproduction of the Official Report). Official Report, 7 Oct 2026: price tracking of common cooked meals across outlet types (Victor Lye; reply Dr Tan See Leng) (2026-10-07)
- Singapore Hawkers' Celebration and Awards
- Singapore Department of Statistics. Household Expenditure Survey 2023 (2023)
- Institute of Policy Studies (reported by CNA). Study finds eating out cheapest in Toa Payoh, most expensive in Bishan; many stalls didn't raise prices after GST hike (2023-03-13)