Offset from Government Rebates for Utility Bills

18 Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling asked the Minister for Finance (a) to what extent has the GST Voucher – Utilities-Save rebate helped to offset utilities bills during periods of increases in electricity tariffs, especially for rental flats; and (b) for those households under the Pay-As-You-Use scheme, whether this rebate can be directly credited into their prepaid utilities account.

Mr Heng Swee Keat: The permanent Goods and Services Tax (GST) Voucher – U-Save scheme has enabled households in 1- and 2-room Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats to receive support which is equivalent to about three to four months of their utilities bills on average. Those living in 3- and 4-room HDB flats receive support equivalent to about one to two months of their utilities bills. The Pay-As-You-Use (PAYU) scheme is a pre-paid metering scheme launched by SP Services in May 2005 to support a small minority of HDB households whose electricity supply has been disconnected due to arrears in utilities payment. PAYU helps these households have their supply reconnected, while allowing them to settle their arrears over time¹. For a household on the PAYU scheme, the applicable U-Save rebate is already being credited to their utilities account to help reduce their arrears. If the arrears have been cleared and that household chooses to remain on the PAYU scheme, the U-Save then offsets the water and gas components of the bill.