| The Government had earlier announced
that water tariffs and the water conservation tax would
be raised and re-structured over three years to get
Singaporeans to treat water as a precious and strategic
resource. It was also announced that the Government
would offset the water rate increases for the lower
income households so that while they would have to pay
more for water like everyone else, overall they would
not be worse off. This would be done partly through
providing rebates on utilities bills and partly through
giving service and conservancy (S&C) grants to the
smaller HDB flats. Last year, I also announced that,
subject to the state of the economy, the Government
would continue to grant utilities rebates to offset
the increase in electricity tariffs for the lower income
households in 1997 and 1998.
The Government has decided to give
a rebate on the public utilities bills for Singaporeans
living in 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-room HDB flats. The amount
will be $100 for 1-, 2-, and 3-room HDB flats, and $50
for 4-room HDB flats. The utilities rebates will be
credited against the utilities bills of eligible households
for the month of September which are payable in October.
Households with smaller bills which are unable to use
up the rebate within the month can carry over the balance
of the rebate until it is fully used up.
The Government has also decided to
grant the same utilities rebate of $100 for 1-3 room
HDB flats and $50 for 4-room HDB flats in 1998.
In addition, the Government will provide
additional grants to help defray the S&C charges
for Singapore citizens staying in 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-room
HDB flats. The S&C grant will be $3 per month for
1-room flats, $4 per month for 2-room flats, $5.50 per
month for 3-room flats, and $4 per month for 4-room
flats. The grant will be given monthly for a two year
period from July 1997 to June 1999.
The utilities rebate, together with
the S&C grant, will more than offset the increase
in water and electricity rates for the 1 to 3-room HDB
flats. For the 4-room HDB flats, the package of utilities
rebate and S&C grant will cover at least half of
the increase in utilities rates. The utilities rebate
and additional S&C grant will cost the Government
about $72 million a year. Subject to good economic performance,
the Government plans to continue to grant utilities
and S&C rebates to the lower income households in
the next few years to help them defray the increase
in their utilities bills.
Those lower income households who
do not live in HDB flats and hence are unable to benefit
from the utilities rebate and S&C grant can obtain
help from the Citizens Consultative Committees (CCCs)
assistance scheme. The scheme was created in 1994, when
GST was introduced, to help lower income households
who for whatever reason are unable to benefit from the
package of offsets for GST. This CCC assistance scheme
will be extended to lower income households affected
by the increase in utilities rate but who are unable
to benefit from the utilities rebate and S&C grant.
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