The electricity tariff before GST, from Jan 1 to March 31, will decrease from 29.74 cents to 28.95 cents per kilowatt hour. - ST FILE
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Households in Singapore can welcome the new year with lower electricity bills, as the tariff for the first quarter of 2023 will drop by 2.7 per cent, even as the new goods and services tax (GST) of 8 per cent kicks in.
The electricity tariff before GST, from Jan 1 to March 31, will decrease from 29.74 cents to 28.95 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), said grid operator SP Group on Friday (Dec 30).
Taking into account the new GST rate of 8 per cent from Jan 1 - up from the current 7 per cent - the new tariff will be 31.27 cents.
The average monthly electricity bill for families living in four-room Housing Board flats will decrease by $2.63 before GST, or $1.85 after taking GST into account.
The tariff had been rising since April 2021, before dipping slightly by 0.43 cents per kWh in the last quarter of 2022. This came amid high energy costs driven by rising global gas and oil prices that were exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, producer and retailer of piped town gas City Energy also announced on Friday that the gas tariff for households before GST will decrease by 0.89 cents per kWh, from 22.73 cents to 21.84 cents per kWh from Jan 1 to March 31.
The new tariff will be 23.59 cents with GST.
Both SP and City Energy attributed the fall in prices to lower fuel costs compared with the previous quarter.
SP said on Friday that its energy costs have decreased by 0.79 cents per kWh.
These energy costs, which are paid to power generation companies, are adjusted quarterly to reflect changes in the costs of fuel and power generation.
The cost of fuel accounts for 77.9 per cent of the electricity tariff while the remainder comprises the cost of power generation, transporting electricity through the power grid, and operations.
