Consumers face third straight quarter of hikes in electricity and gas prices
Tariffs will go up from January to March due to higher costs, said SP Group and City Energy.
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SINGAPORE: The electricity tariff will increase by 4.1 per cent, or 1.19 cents per kWh, before Goods and Services Tax (GST), from January to March 2024, national grid operator SP Group said on Friday (Dec 29).
For families living in four-room HDB flats, this translates to an increase in the average monthly electricity bill by about S$4.39 (US$3.33) before GST.
The gas tariff, meanwhile, will increase by 3.3 per cent to 23.51 cents per kWh, announced City Energy.
This is the third straight quarter of increases for electricity and gas prices.
SP Group attributed the latest hike to higher energy costs, which are made up of the cost of fuel and the cost of power generation.
REBATES FOR HOUSEHOLDS
To help cushion the impact of a scheduled GST hike, as well as increases in the carbon tax and the price of water, about 950,000 Singaporean households living in HDB flats will receive U-Save and service and conservancy charges (S&CC) rebates in January 2024.
These rebates - disbursed in April, July, October and January each year - are part of the permanent GST Voucher scheme and the Assurance Package.
“In FY2023, eligible households will receive double their regular U-Save rebates, and an additional S$20 per quarter of U-Save from January 2024 to cushion the impact of the increases in carbon tax and water price,” the Ministry of Finance said in a press release on Friday.Â
The additional S$20 per quarter of U-Save, which will be provided every quarter from January 2024 to December 2025, was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong in September this year as part of a S$1.1 billion support package to help households with the cost of living.
The ministry said that on average, U-Save rebates provided for the 2023 fiscal year, amounted to about eight to 10 months of utility bills for households living in one- and two-room HDB flats.
For three- and four-room HDB flats, the rebates covered about four to six months of utility bills.
The U-Save rebates will be credited directly into households’ utilities accounts with SP Services, while the S&CC rebates will be credited directly into households’ S&CC accounts with their respective town councils.
SP Group, which owns and operates Singapore's electricity network, reviews the electricity tariffs every quarter based on guidelines set by the industry regulator, the Energy Market Authority (EMA).
The electricity tariff consists of four components, including energy costs paid to power generation companies, and network costs paid to SG Group to recover the cost of transporting electricity through the power grid.
There is also a market support fee paid to SP Group that recovers the costs of billing and meter reading, as well as a fee paid to the energy market company that recovers the costs of operating the electricity wholesale market and power system.
The energy costs component is adjusted quarterly to reflect changes in the cost of fuel and power generation. The fuel cost is the cost of imported natural gas, which is tied to oil prices by commercial contracts.
The cost of power generation covers mainly the costs of operating the power stations, such as the manpower and maintenance costs, as well as the capital cost of the stations.
