Finance ministry says those affected by mistake will be given more credits
Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 28 Feb 09;
PULAU Ubin residents have reason to celebrate over the amount of GST credits that they will be receiving.
It looked like they were going to get only the minimum amount this year because their humble island homes were treated the same as landed property on the mainland.
They had earlier faced a similar problem in getting a payout from the Government, though they had received their proper allotment of GST credits last year.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has acknowledged that there was a 'system error' this time and will be giving them more GST credits.
Among those affected is driver and odd-job labourer Ong Kim Cheng, 51.
He was happy to get a letter saying he would be receiving money from the Government.
Then he realised he was getting only $200, apparently because his identity card address, 218D Pulau Ubin, was taken to mean that he lives in a landed house.
Mr Ong has lived on Ubin all his life.
'I was born and bred here. I don't think it's fair that they consider our attap houses to be the same as landed property on the mainland,' he said in Mandarin.
His house, like the others in Pulau Ubin, does not have piped water from PUB. They have to get water pumped from wells.
As for electricity, they have to rely on diesel generators as they are not connected to the national grid.
For the GST credits, adults aged 21 to 54 living in four-room, five-room or executive HDB flats are eligible for $400. Those living in three-room flats and below are eligible for $500.
Another way to determine how much each person is eligible for is to look at the annual value of the home.
Those living in homes with an annual value below $5,000 are supposed to get $500.
An idea of how much Mr Ong's home is worth is to look at how much he paid the Singapore Land Authority annually for his temporary occupational licence.
He showed us a receipt for $360. Going by this, he should get $500, not $200.
Second time
Mr Ong said: 'This is the second time that the authorities have given us less because the address on our identity card is not an HDB block address.'
When The New Paper visited Ubin last week, about half a dozen residents showed us their letters on the GST credits.
All of them were given the lowest amount of credits and senior citizens' bonus.
Mr Tan Teck Giap, 38, a driver, said he called the hotline number given in the letter to clarify that he does not live on mainland landed property.
'I was told that they will make an appeal for me. But some people who don't know how to read would just accept what is given,' he said.
In 2004, Ubin residents were allotted only 200 Economic Restructuring Shares (ERS) while those who lived in HDB flats got 400.
After The New Paper raised this with the CPF board, which administers the ERS scheme, it apologised and gave 200 more shares to about 70 affected Ubin residents.
About 70 to 100 people live on Ubin now.
An MOF spokesman said that if citizens there and on other outlying islands have properties with an assessed annual value, it will be used in the allotment of their GST credits.
The annual value of properties that have not been assessed will be considered as less than $5,000, as most of them are likely to be farm or attap-type residences.
'Due to a system error, some properties in Pulau Ubin were not tagged as island addresses, and were therefore allotted a lower amount than they should have received in 2009,' the spokesman said.
'This error has been noted and the 2009 payouts for the affected Singaporeans will be adjusted by 1 Mar.
'The affected individuals, about 60 of them, will also receive a notification letter to inform them of their revised allotment this week.'
When told about this, Mr Ong said: 'So the whole island will get the correct amount now? We thank The New Paper for helping us. We're all very happy to hear this news.'
