GST Vouchers Will Be Given Out 4 Times A Year Under Utilities-Save Scheme
A warm welcome to the year indeed. As part of the Utilities-Save, or U-Save, scheme, about 930,000 HDB households will receive up to $100 in GST vouchers in Jan 2020.
This is according to a press release from the Ministry of Finance.
The vouchers are to help households offset their utility bills. The amount received per voucher will depend on the type of HDB you’re living in.
- 1/2-room: $100
- 3-room: $90
- 4-room: $80
- 5-room: $70
- Executive/multi-generation: $60
The vouchers will be given out every 3 months, which means households get to have up to $400 shaved off their utility expenses per annum.
Eligibility for GST vouchers 2020
In order to receive the voucher, your household will have to meet these criteria:
- If you live in or partially rent out your HDB flat, there must be >1 Singaporean owner/occupier
- If you rent out the entire HDB flat, there must be >1 Singaporean tenant
- Immediate family members living in the same flat must not own or have interest in more than 1 property
No registration is required to receive the voucher. The payments will be automatically credited to the utilities account of your household, provided you meet the criteria.
Because these GST vouchers are meant to help Singaporeans with their utility bills, you cannot encash them and use them to pay for other expenses.
Unused vouchers, however, will be rolled over to the next one, so it doesn’t mean that you lose the unused amount.
Will help offset rise in electricity costs
Before the new year, news came out that there will be a rise in electricity bills (due to higher energy costs) from Jan to Mar 2020.
Household bills are expected to rise by 3.5%, or up to around $4/month for HDB flats.
The GST voucher means that most, if not all, of that increase should be negated.
As Ms Indranee Rajah said in the press release from MOF, “the Government will continue to explore ways to help Singaporeans with their cost of living, especially in this period of economic uncertainty.”
Featured image adapted from Business Insider.
