SINGAPORE — In an impassioned speech in Parliament on Monday (May 4), Member of Parliament (MP) Intan Azura Mokhtar asked why the Government imposed a ban on home-based businesses only to “backpedal”, as she put it, just a week later.

In a response, Minister of the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli said the situation had improved, so the Government adjusted its policy accordingly. He rejected the suggestion it had backpedalled.

“The Covid-19 crisis is not about preserving livelihoods alone. The crisis has caused many governments to make tough choices between preserving livelihoods and preserving life itself.”

The blanket ban on home-based businesses, many of which were gearing up for bumper sales during the holy month of Ramadan culminating in Hari Raya Puasa, was announced on April 25. On Saturday, the Government announced that these rules would be relaxed from May 12 as part of a wider easing of circuit breaker restrictions.

Dr Intan, the MP for Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency (GRC), and a member of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), asked: "Did home-based businesses pose a serious Covid-19 related risk in the first place that required the blanket ban?"

She asked these questions in an adjournment motion, in which she laid out how the complete ban badly affected the many families that relied on such businesses for their income.

“It is not an easy life for home-based businesses. I know because I grew up as the daughter of a home baker,” said Dr Intan.

She explained that her mother used to get only two or three hours of sleep during festive seasons so that she could fulfil her orders of pineapple tarts, cakes and cookies, tasks which Dr Intan, as a younger person, used to help her with.

She added that the sales of the festive treats helped to supplement her family’s income especially when her late father had lost his job for a period, although her mother still had income from a day job, and the home baking supplemented that.

Dr Intan then turned to the Covid-19 crisis and told the story of a home baker whom she identified only as Mdm N, the sole breadwinner for her family of four, whose husband lost his job as a driver due to suffering from diabetes and a heart condition. Mdm N also has to care for her aged mother-in-law and son, who is in primary school.

She also told the story of another home baker, Ms Sery, a single mother of five school-going children. One of her children suffers from spina bifida, a birth defect that affects the spine, which has forced her to stay home to care for the boy.

Dr Intan then cited the case of Ms Adeline Tan, who decided to start selling cakes, brownies and cookies full-time since graduating from university last year as she has had to go through a series of eye surgeries, which would have disrupted a more permanent form of employment.

“The dignified tenacity and resilience of home bakers and home-based business owners such as Mdm N, Ms Sery and Ms Tan are admirable. They embody self-reliance. They do not want to be a burden to society, and they want to strike out on their own on the path they know well.”

Dr Intan added that these home-based business owners needed time to make adjustments.

“Orders have had to be cancelled or put on hold, refunds have had to be made, and to some extent, raw ingredients already purchased have had to be discarded.”

“For the affected home-based businesses, they did not just suffer a loss of income, they also saw their own hard-earned savings put to waste,” said Dr Intan.

Dr Intan thanked President Halimah Yacob, who addressed the issue on Labour Day, and National Development Minister Lawrence Wong for “showing empathy and understanding of the hardship and challenges that home-based businesses face”.

“It is the kind of leadership that people need in times of difficulty,” she said.

In his adjournment motion speech, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Zainal Sapari, also of the PAP, suggested that even with the lifting of some restrictions, some home-based business owners might continue facing financial distress.

He asked if home-based business owners would be able to apply for the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (Sirs) if they are in financial distress and if the scheme would be applicable for all owners whether they are full-time or seasonal in carrying out their business.

Mr Zainal added that some home-based business owners who are unable to fulfil the orders have had to refund their customers.

“They will incur a loss if their customers insist on a refund instead of postponing the orders,” he said, adding that the advice that has been given to them is to file for relief under the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Bill from their contractual obligations.

“The reality is that most home-based businesses do not have scheduled contracts and will not be able to avail themselves of the reliefs under the Act.”

He said legal action was not practical as it was expensive, so the best option was to negotiate an amicable outcome.

Mr Zainal also thanked President Halimah for “showing great empathy” towards home-based businesses and Mr Wong and the ministers in the multi-ministerial task force for their “leadership in steering Singapore through this crisis”.

Mr Masagos then replied to both of them though he did not directly address Mr Zainal’s questions.

He explained that while non-online home-based businesses could normally run without oversight or registration as they were typically small and do not disturb the neighbours, their “informal” and “dispersed nature” presents a special challenge during Covid-19.

“We cannot enforce safe distancing in them in the same way we do for commercial orders. This poses a real risk when people move and interact in residential estates, as goods are collected and delivered. It takes just one infected person to start a cluster. Lives, especially of our elderly, at stake. And they can be right in the homes of the home-based business operations,” he said.

“The circuit breaker would need to be extended if community transmissions remain high. So we are not backpedalling. We are just making a decision because the situation has improved,” he said.

Mr Masagos added that positive early results and a decrease in community transmissions are due to the fact that “everyone including the home-based business” have been compliant with the measures. The average daily number of new cases in the community has halved from 25 in the week before to 12 last week, he said.

Therefore, the Government will gradually relax restrictions from May 12, he said, which would allow home-based businesses to resume operations for delivery and collection only.

“But we are not out of the woods yet because clusters can still form as activities and interactions increase. Food home-based businesses, their customers, and delivery personnel have to comply with a set of safe distancing measures like practising contactless delivery and collection and installing TraceTogether to help contact tracing,” he said.