A customer scans a QR code at a hawker stall, and a payment is made without cash changing hands. By October 2024, more than 11,500 hawkers in Singapore had adopted cashless payments through the Hawkers Go Digital programme. But for stallholders, moving to digital payments also meant getting used to transaction fees.
To give hawkers more time to adjust, the government extended the programme’s subsidy until the end of 2025. The subsidy covered a 0.5 per cent transaction fee on each stall’s first $20,000 in monthly digital transactions. Customers paid by QR code through the Singapore Quick Response Code, or SGQR, platform.
Enterprise Singapore and the Infocomm Media Development Authority introduced the initiative in 2018. Its goal was to help about 18,000 stallholders in government-run food centres adopt digital payments before subsidies were lifted. These centres include those operated by the National Environment Agency and the Housing Board.
The extension followed two changes to the original timeline. The scheme had been due to end on December 31, 2023, before being extended to the end of 2024. The latest extension came after feedback from hawkers, with Enterprise Singapore and IMDA saying it would support their transition to paying transaction fees without the subsidy. The agencies also pointed to rising operating costs.
The figures show that use of digital payments had grown. In August 2024, the monthly transaction value reached $60 million, compared with $45 million in August 2023. The number of transactions also increased, from 5.4 million to 7.6 million over the same period.
Senior Minister of State Low Yen Ling described the programme as part of efforts to help hawkers thrive in the digital age. The extended subsidy gives participating stallholders more time to become familiar with e-payments and prepare for a non-subsidised payment structure.
The programme’s growth does not mean that every hawker or food centre accepts cashless payments, or that cash has disappeared. Instead, the extension marks another step in supporting hawkers as they adapt to digital transactions, while giving them time to adjust to the costs involved.
Source: Subsidy for hawkers to adopt digital payments extended to end-2025, The Straits Times
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