Rising manpower costs, that is a laught...have you seen SMRT bus CAPTAINS, most of them are from The People's Republic Of China & Malaysia; the SINgaporean Kapitan are just a token few. These does not stop at the Bus Captains, the rest of the staffs are mostly FT's. How could that be a rising manpower cost, if this is so M.O.M., should address this concern, not the public to adress this with their money!.
As for fuel costs, that is understanderable, but the bus company book their fuel in futures & have economies of scale, unless they lose money in the fuel futures speculation.=, that is a concern.
They may be paying too much to the people at the top, hence, the need to ask for more money.