About 950,000 HDB households to receive GST voucher rebate for utilities bills in April
Sun shining over blocks of flats in Singapore. (File photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
SINGAPORE: About 950,000 Singaporean households living in Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats will receive their quarterly GST Voucher U-Save rebate this month, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced on Thursday (Apr 1).
The households will receive an additional 50 per cent of their regular U-Save in the 2021 financial year, which will be credited in April and July, said the ministry in a press release.
In total, the regular U-Save and U-Save special payment will amount to S$460 million in rebates this financial year to support families with their household expenses.
The U-Save special payment is part of the S$900 million Household Support Package to provide additional support to families with their expenses. The package was announced during Budget 2021 in February. Lower- to middle-income families will receive more support.
READ: Budget 2021: S$900 million Household Support Package to help families with expenses
Typically, households in one- and two-room HDB flats receive U-Save rebates amounting to an average of about three to four months of their utility bills.
Together with the U-Save special payment, these households will receive rebates equivalent to about four and a half months to six months of their utility bills this year, said MOF.
Households living in three- and four-room flats normally receive U-Save rebates amounting to an average of about one to two months of their utility bills. They will receive support equivalent to about one-and-a-half to three months of their utility bills this year.
Households whose members own more than one property are not eligible for the U-Save rebate.
Eligible households will receive their regular GST Voucher U-Save rebates over four quarters - April, July, October 2021 and January 2022.
On top of the regular U-Save rebate, eligible households will receive their special payments over two quarters in April and July.
The regular U-Save rebates in April, July and October include an additional S$5 per quarter from January 2019 to December 2021. This was announced in the 2018 Budget to mitigate the introduction of carbon tax, said MOF. From January 2022, the regular U-Save rebate received by households will no longer include the additional S$5.
The GST Voucher scheme was introduced by the Government in 2012 to help lower- and middle-income Singaporeans to offset some of their GST expenses.
It comprises of three components - cash, MediSave and U-Save.
