Each S'porean household to get $100 CDC vouchers from today
All Singaporean households can now collect $100 worth of Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers to spend at more than 16,000 participating heartland merchants and hawkers.
In addition, $200 more in vouchers will be disbursed in early 2023, and another $200 in 2024, with major supermarkets roped in for the next two years.
The latest vouchers can be collected digitally from Wednesday (May 11), and can be used until Dec 31 this year together with the vouchers released last year.
Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, who announced the scheme at Budget 2022 as part of the $560 million Household Support Package, launched the scheme at Tampines West Community Club on Wednesday (May 11). He was joined by the five mayors - Ms Low Yen Ling, Ms Denise Phua, Mr Desmond Choo, Mr Alex Yam and Mr Fahmi Aliman - who also chair the CDCs in their districts.
The latest round of vouchers comes less than five months after CDC Vouchers 2021 was rolled out on Dec 13 last year to defray daily expenses and support heartland merchants and hawkers hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at Wednesday's launch, Mr Wong said that the original plan was to implement this year's CDC Vouchers in the second half of the year, after the earlier tranche of vouchers had been fully utilised. However, he decided to bring it forward as many Singaporeans are concerned about their daily expenses and the impact of rising prices due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
He noted that prices have been increasing worldwide both because of the Ukraine war and the continued shipping and supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic.
"Even countries that are oil and gas exporters are facing higher prices, let alone a small open economy like Singapore that imports almost everything we consume," he said.
"So we have to brace ourselves for higher prices during this period. But rest assured that the Government will continue to do our utmost to help cushion the impact, especially for the lower- and middle-income households.
"In particular, we will continue to monitor the global situation, and will not hesitate to take further action to help households and businesses if the situation worsens."
Calling the scheme a resounding success, he said that to date, in less than 5 months, more than 1.1 million households or 93 per cent of all Singaporeans households have claimed their 2021 vouchers. The use rate of the vouchers has also been positive, with close to $85m spent over this period, representing 70 per cent of the total amount of vouchers allocated. Utilisation continues to increase day by day, he added.
As with the last tranche, only one family member is required to login to his or her Singpass acocunt to claim the CDC vouchers on behalf of their household at go.gov.sg/cdcv. Upon signing up, a link for the CDC vouchers will be sent to the registered mobile phone number of the claimant, who can share the vouchers with other household members via the same link.
Singaporeans may also eventually be able to donate their CDC vouchers to charities and philanthropic causes.
On Monday, the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong said the vouchers use the RedeemSG platform developed by GovTech's Open Government Products.
"It is currently used by some organisations, and is being developed to cater to a wider range of needs that could be used by various organisations such as Government agencies and charities and for philanthropic causes," Mr Tong said in a written reply to a question.
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