wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Today Online 8 Feb 06
 In murky waters: Water Conservation Tax system can be improved
 Letter from Siew Ngung Chia

Natural fresh water sources in Singapore are limited. The Government introduced the Water Conservation Tax (WCT) to drive home the message that water is precious. For residential homes, the tax rate is 30 per cent of the water bill when monthly usage is under 40 cubic metres, and 45 per cent for consumption above that.

I agree that water is precious in Singapore and support the WCT. However, there is a need for more equity in the application and charging of the tax

. Firstly, the purpose of the tax is to encourage water conservation and to penalise those who waste water. Unfortunately, the tax applies the moment a person consumes the very first drop of water.

Considering that water is essential to maintain life, should we therefore exempt a certain minimum consumption before a person starts to pay 30 per cent tax for water consumption? Surely, we cannot accuse a person of wasting water if he/she is using it for day-to-day needs.

Secondly, the monthly consumption limit between the 30 per cent and 45 per cent tax rate is 40 cubic metres. This disregards household sizes. A person who stays alone and consumes 38 cubic metre of water is clearly wasting water when compared with a family of eight members who collectively consumes only 42 cubic metre of water.

Under the present tax system, we may be punishing extended families with a higher tax rate, despite their efforts to save water.

Thirdly, the WCT is subject to Goods and Services Tax (GST). For example, if your water bill is $10, the WCT will be $3 (assuming a 30 per cent rate) and your GST will be 5 per cent of $13 (inclusive of the tax paid) and not the $10 worth of water consumption. Logically, GST should only be levied on goods sold and services performed. In this case, we see double taxation. If the principle is extended to other taxes, will we be paying GST when we pay Income Tax, Property Tax, etc? Can the authorities explain the rationale?
links
Related articles on Singapore: reduce, reuse, recycle
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com