SINGAPORE – Supermarket chain FairPrice will absorb the upcoming 1 percentage point increase in GST for some daily essentials for the first half of 2024, in what the company said was an effort to cushion the tax hike’s impact on consumers.
The scheme will offset the tax hike on 500 essential items, including rice, fresh fruit and vegetables, and toilet paper.
FairPrice Group (FPG) announced the scheme on Nov 27, saying it was part of a move to “assist Singaporeans during these times of stubborn inflation resulting in an unprecedented rise in the cost of living”.
On Jan 1, 2024, the goods and services tax (GST) rate will go up from 8 per cent to 9 per cent, the second of a two-stage rate hike that started on Jan 1, 2023.
The items covered under the scheme are products that the supermarket chain’s customers purchase frequently, said FPG.
They comprise national brands and house brand items and include fresh produce, staples, dairy, meat, paper products, detergents and household cleaners.
This initiative will apply across all types of FairPrice supermarkets and stores, including FairPrice supermarkets, FairPrice Shop stores, FairPrice Finest outlets, FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets and FairPrice Online.
FPG, which consists of FairPrice, Kopitiam, NTUC Foodfare and NTUC Link, said it would also extend its discount schemes for members of the Pioneer Generation (PG), Merdeka Generation (MG) and Community Health Assist Scheme Blue card holders to Dec 31, 2024.
To benefit from these discount schemes, eligible customers will need to present their relevant membership cards to the cashier when checking out their purchases.
At self-checkout counters, customers must select the relevant card discount option. These discounts are valid for up to $200 per transaction per day.
FPG chief executive Vipul Chawla said the company was committed to “alleviate the rising cost of daily essentials, especially for the more vulnerable among us”.
The group said in its statement that it has given out more than $780 million in the form of discounts, rebates and donations since 2019.
It pointed out that this sum amounted to more than $200 million in 2022, an amount that it expects to equal in 2023.
FPG had provided discounts when the 3 per cent GST was introduced in 1994, and when the rate was increased from 5 per cent to 7 per cent in 2007. It also did so for six months on certain essential items when the GST rate increased from 7 per cent to 8 per cent in 2023.
