Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan, who chairs the committee, yesterday told reporters that a student care centre had been reprimanded for excessive fee increases.

The centre, which Mr Lee declined to name, had announced to parents in its newsletter last month that, due to the GST hike from 5 to 7 per cent, it would be raising its fees from $270 to $280 'across our branches'.

The $10 difference was nearly twice the additional amount of $5.40 that parents had to pay for the GST hike.

Speaking after a walkabout in Greenridge Shopping Centre at Bukit Panjang, Mr Lee said he had written a letter to the centre, prompting the company to reverse its decision on the fees.

'We warned them severely...I signed the letter and issued it to them. We want to stop that kind of practice because clearly it's misleading,' he said.

The number of complaints received by the committee has risen dramatically since the GST hike came into effect on July 1.

Eighty complaints were filed in the last four weeks alone, compared to 49 over the first six months of this year.

Of the total of 129 complaints received so far, 58 cases have been concluded while 71 are still being investigated, the committee said in a statement yesterday.

Mr Lee said the recent spike was due to increased public awareness of avenues for feedback, rather than an increase in the actual number of profiteering cases.

The walkabout at Greenridge Shopping Centre - a heartland mall of about 50 small shops, salons and minimarts - was his sixth visit to businesses across the island in two months.

Most of the shopkeepers interviewed by The Sunday Times said they had absorbed the GST hike to retain customers.

Hairdresser Wong Kit Hoong, 31, of Top 12 Unisex Salon, one of three hair salons there, said: 'It's already so cheap to have a haircut here: $9 for men, $10 for women. But we won't raise prices. If we raise it by even 50 cents our customers will go elsewhere.'

Said Mr Lee after his visit of a dozen businesses there, including Top 12 Unisex Salon: 'When we visited the merchants, they all said they're quite aware of the sensitivity of the consumers, and therefore, many are holding their prices firm.'

But he urged shopkeepers to think of new marketing strategies, like having special promotions, to attract more customers.

Overall, Mr Lee said, prices across the island had remained 'quite stable'.

'If you compare June 2006 and now, over the one-year period, inflation was about 1.6 per cent, which is the typical pattern of previous years. So prices have not been affected that much.'

kenkwek@sph.com.sg