Singapore wrongly charged taxpayers US$5.5 million in GST last 5 years, will have to refund fees

The Ministry of Finance said the errors were discovered in November when it found inconsistencies in the application of GST on certain government fees

There are more than 5,000 government fees and charges, and this approach can result in mistakes by agencies, the ministry said

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The Singpore government will refund about US$5.5 million in GST that was wrongly charged over the last five years. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:00pm, 14 Feb 2024Updated: 11:33pm, 14 Feb 2024

Six Singapore government agencies will be refunding about S$7.5 million (US$5.5 million) in Goods and Services Tax (GST) that had been wrongly charged on certain regulatory fees.

They are the Council for Estate Agencies, Housing and Development Board (HDB), the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) under the Ministry of Social and Family Development, the Singapore Food Agency and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

An internal review by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) found that 18 fees – applying to both individuals and businesses – across the six agencies were affected.

This translates to some 200,000 transactions annually that were wrongly charged with GST since January 1, 2019, said MOF in a statement on Wednesday.

MOF and the six agencies apologise for the erroneous charging of GST. All agencies have taken immediate steps to cease the charging of GST on the affected fees from today

Singapore Ministry of Finance statement

Around 90 per cent of these transactions were with individuals, the rest with businesses, and HDB fees account for more than 70 per cent of the transactions.

“MOF and the six agencies apologise for the erroneous charging of GST. All agencies have taken immediate steps to cease the charging of GST on the affected fees from today,” said MOF’s second permanent secretary for finance Lai Wei Lin.