Fairprice Helps Customers Tide Over Festive Season With GST Hike Absorption For All Items
In view of the Lunar New Year festive sales that fall in the first month of the GST 1% hike, NTUC FairPrice has decided to help Singaporeans celebrate with ease by absorbing the GST increase on all items during the festive season.
Earlier, in the month of May 2002, NTUC FairPrice had announced that it would absorb the GST hike on 400 essential items for one year. It was prepared to absorb, on behalf of its customers, a total of about $6 million of GST for the entire year.
With the change of plan, prices of all items at all NTUC FairPrice supermarkets will remain unchanged for the whole month of January 2003. Just in January alone, NTUC FairPrice estimates that it will absorb about $1.5 million on GST. Prices of the 400 essential items will, as NTUC FairPrice has committed earlier, continue to remain the same throughout the year while adjustment of prices for the other non-essential items will be phased in gradually. It is estimated that the entire cost of GST absorption for the whole year will come up to about $5 million.
Mr Lim Boon Heng, Secretary-General of NTUC and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said: "What NTUC FairPrice is doing is essentially trying to help cushion the impact of the GST hike. It did that in 1994 when GST was first implemented. We are aware that times are hard and the festive season is around the corner. To ease the financial burden of consumers especially during a major festive celebration, NTUC FairPrice has decided to extend its GST hike absorption on all items for one month, instead of just the 400 essential items it has earlier agreed upon. I hope that other retailers will also follow suit and bring some cheer to consumers."
More GST help from NTUC co-operatives
In addition to Fairprice's move, more NTUC co-operatives also announced that they will help Singaporeans cushion the impact of the GST increase next year.
NTUC Childcare will be absorbing the GST increase for children from low-income families enrolled in its centres for the full year of 2003. $40,000 from the NTUC Childcare Financial Assistance Fund has been set aside for this purpose, and it is estimated that more than 600 families will stand to benefit from this scheme.
This is not the first time NTUC Childcare has used its Financial Assistance Fund to help low income families. In August this year, it introduced a $100 rebate on the monthly fees for three months for parents who were retrenched. Due to expire in December 2002, NTUC Childcare will extend this relief till June 2003. Said Mr Tay Kiong Pang, Chief Executive Officer of NTUC Childcare, "We are committed to providing Singaporeans with quality and affordable early childhood care and education services. Through our Financial Assistance Fund, we want to enable more children to continue their development in the crucial pre-school years with us."
NTUC Club has been absorbing GST for consumers since 1994 at its eight outlets. It would continue to absorb GST, including the 1% increase next year, for members at six clubhouses (Celebrations, Happy Days, Jest D'Place, J'Springs, Planet Paradigm, Union Square), and two resorts (Resort Downtown East and NTUC Sentosa Beach Resort) until further notice.
Says Mr Chng Hee Kok, Chief Executive Officer of NTUC Club, "NTUC Club has been absorbing GST for consumers since the beginning, and will continue to do so to make it easier for our members and guests to enjoy themselves at our outlets. In addition, we will continue to keep our prices affordable to provide greater value to our members."
NTUC Income will be absorbing the increase in GST from 3% to 4% for general insurance products. GST is exempted for life insurance products. Said NTUC Income CEO Tan Kin Lian, "We review our premium rates each year, to look at the claim experiences and our expenses. The cost of GST will be taken into account in our review. Any increase in GST will be taken into consideration during our review. Our aim is to keep our premium rates at a competitive level, by controlling our claims and expenses. Any uncontrollable expenses, such as GST, will be added to the premium rate. We do not charge the GST separately. We find it to be more convenient to build it into the premium rate."
