SINGAPORE: The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) social enterprises are dishing out more savings for Singaporeans, while acting as a check against profiteering.

Last year, the 12 enterprises – which include NTUC FairPrice, Childcare and Healthcare – contributed S$73 million in rebates, discounts and vouchers. This is S$8 million more than what was given in 2006.

The NTUC social enterprises earned a total of S$4.6 billion in group revenue last year – an 8.6 percent increase from 2006.

The labour movement revealed this at a news conference on Monday when it presented its social contributions for the whole of last year.

Tan Kian Chew, Group CEO of NTUC FairPrice, said: "Price increase in rice and oil is something that is unavoidable because of global warming and a shortage of production in a few countries. But we have increased our import, which we have managed to secure at a low cost and we'll continue to pass this lower cost to our consumers."

To pass on the savings, NTUC FairPrice will extend its five percent discount on 500 essential housebrand items till end-July. This will cost the co-op S$4.5 million.

The discount scheme, which started in December last year, was supposed to end this month.

Josephine Anthony, a widow, is the sole breadwinner of her family and she earns about S$500 a month. Over the last nine months, she has received S$90 worth of NTUC FairPrice vouchers.

She said: "If we don't have the vouchers, we would have to spend more and have a lot of expenses. With the NTUC vouchers, we can get cheaper things and some of my burden will be less."

Every week, Josephine’s family will try to spend about S$20 or less on food. They said they can save about S$10 when they purchase their groceries from NTUC FairPrice.

Her 14-year-old son, Prasantino Thiru Selvan, said: "Sometimes when my mother wants to buy something for us, she just buys them without looking at the price tags and our budget will go over the limit. The other time, when we went to FairPrice, my sister wanted to buy two Sara Lee cakes, but I told her that two cakes would be too expensive and we should just buy one."

Besides helping Singaporeans cope with higher costs, the social enterprises have also forced other market players to price their products reasonably.

NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say said: "NTUC FairPrice is committed to ensuring that 400 items are at everyday low price. So if our competitors want to try and profiteer, it's not possible...

"In this way, not only are we keeping the cost of living more affordable for the rank-and-file workers, we're also setting a benchmark in the industry, in terms of the social pricing in the industry.

"We're not saying that business enterprises ought to lower their prices to an extent that they're losing money. What we're saying is that everybody should try and keep their profit margin at a reasonable level so that products and services can be more affordable to everyone."

Going forward, the NTUC social enterprises want to work on help schemes for active senior citizens, working mothers and low-wage workers by partnering private companies.

The labour movement also gave an update on the "U Stretch" initiative on Monday. It said it has received over 23,000 applications in the first week alone and some 80,000 union members are expected to benefit from the scheme.

"U Stretch" is a S$4 million voucher scheme that helps rank-and-file workers defray the higher cost of living. It is redeemable over an eight-month period beginning from May 1 to December 31.


- CNA/so