Cases Referred to Committee Against Profiteering Per Quarter Since Reconvening in March 2022

17 Ms Mariam Jaafar asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how many cases have been referred to the Committee Against Profiteering per quarter since it was reconvened on 16 March 2022; (b) how many cases have been found to constitute profiteering; (c) what penalties have been imposed following investigation, beyond asking the businesses involved to be transparent on their pricing and communication; and (d) how many repeat complaints have been received.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr Alvin Tan) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Sir, the Committee Against Profiteering (CAP) has received over 350 feedback submissions to date. Among these submissions, 32 cases involved specific allegations of Goods and Services Tax (GST) misrepresentation. The CAP worked with partners including the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore, the Consumers Association of Singapore and the People's Association to investigate these cases. The businesses concerned were cooperative and have ceased the practices of GST misrepresentation. The CAP has not received any repeat complaints of GST misrepresentation against the same shops.

Mr Speaker: Ms Mariam Jaafar.

Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang): With the impending rise of water prices and electricity prices, there is some fear that may trigger another round of price increases at our hawker centres and coffee shops. My supplementary question is: while there is not a lot of water in a bowl of noodles or it does not take that much water to clean a store, how can the CAP take a proactive approach to ensure that these increases and prices do not translate into opportunities for profiteering?

Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, I thank the Member for her supplementary question and I also acknowledge that these are valid concerns on the ground. As the Member would also understand, business costs arise through a variety of factors, including the cost of utilities, including water, manpower and also a variety of different factors. Singapore has a robust regime in place to ensure that our businesses compete fairly and consumers have sufficient choices across the board.

Should a member of the public come across egregious cases of potential profiteering, they can report this to the CAP via three channels: first, the online feedback form – it is at cap.gov.sg; second, the hotline – I will just give the number here at 67970618; or you can visit any of our 112 community clubs and these can help to deal with vernacular speakers.

Sir, I also wanted to emphasise on Senior Minister of State Dr Koh Poh Koon's point earlier on that the Government has taken on and in fact announced a suite of measures over the past couple of years, including recently the $1.1 billion Cost-of-Living Support Package announced by Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

But the Government's efforts alone are not enough. I would like to express appreciation to our businesses for also doing their part to promote the welfare of our consumers by holding prices steady or providing discounts to our vulnerable groups. I would also like to acknowledge businesses which voluntarily absorbed the impact of the GST increase for an intial period in 2023, such as Fairprice, Giant, Sheng Siong supermarkets as well as retailers like IKEA and Owndays.

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): I thank the Senior Minister of State for his answer. As he is well aware, these price increases occur in a general environment where both prices in general are rising because of inflation but also potentially because of GST. Is there a specific formula or a model that the Ministry applies or that the Committee applies to try to distinguish between how much of the increase is due to potentially profiteering from the increase or from price rises more generally?

Mr Alvin Tan: I thank the Member for his question. I will give a bit of a context as well the few ways in which we are handling inflation – and we have discussed this and debated this in the House multiple times – one, is monetary policy, which helps to dampen imported inflation; and the second is, as I have mentioned earlier, our fiscal policies.

I will also share that during the first GST increase to 8% that we saw earlier this year, the CAP also saw an increase in feedback volume received on this. So, we will monitor that very carefully and one of the key measures is also to get feedback from the ground and then we will take the appropriate measures.