Asia One

Just caught this over my twitter feed. Did you know that by paying for goods over the MRT gantry, you will be liable for a $2000 fine? Now this is something new.

The New Paper found out that under SMRT regulations, it is an offence to conduct a business transaction over a fare gate.

On 18 Jan this year, the 43-year-old was waiting for a friend at the Tampines MRT station when he saw a middle-aged man pass some pastries over the fare gate to some people on the other side.

‘The man was carrying a basket with some Chinese New Year pastries inside,’ Mr Gan told to The New Paper.

‘Some people were buying the pastries from him, and they had planned to meet there.’

Mr Gan said the man was inside the paid area of the MRT station, while the buyers were on the other side.

He saw the man hand over a box of pastries to a buyer who then paid him.

At this point, two SMRT employees approached the man. Mr Gan said he overheard them telling the man that he was not allowed to sell items over the fare gate.

So the man tapped his ez-link card and went out into the station’s unpaid area.

There, he continued his dealing with his buyers.

Again, another two SMRT employees approached him, Mr Gan claimed.

‘They looked like they were going to chase him away, so he quickly finished what he was doing and went back into the (paid area of the) MRT station.’

Curious, Mr Gan approached the man to find out more. The man told him he had done transactions over the fare gate before, but that was the first time he had been warned by SMRT staff.

When contacted, an SMRT spokesman confirmed it is indeed against their regulations to conduct business transactions over the fare gate.

The spokesman said the maximum penalty for such an offence is a $2,000 fine.

As someone who occasionally sells used items over forums, this is a very common scene in the local online 2nd hand market. Usually, when meeting a buyer, we don’t travel out just to meet them at the station and then head on home. We usually arrange our meeting timing such that we can just pass the goods over the gantry to the buyer at a MRT stop that is along the way of our destination. That way we don’t have to get out of the gantry, and then walk in again, 30 seconds later.

I’m quite curious though to find out how SMRT plans to enforce this rule and if their own staffs are aware of this rule. If this wasn’t even reported in the news, would you had known about it?

Here’s a question for you, would you still continue to make this kind of transaction, or would you get out of the gantry and pay an extra $0.70 to re-enter?