TL;DR – Daiso to start charging GST ahead of 2023. RIP my Daiso therapy.
With a wide variety of products, shopping at Daiso aka The $2 Shopping Haven has always been therapeutic for many of us. From travel essentials, and snacks, to household items, one can really get lost in the aisles for hours digging for interesting $2 buys!
Just yesterday, however, netizen Ava P Burgh posted a “price change notice” sign on Facebook fanpage Daiso and Threepy pasted at a Daiso outlet. “No longer $2 at Daiso,” he lamented, adding a sad face emoji for emphasis.
Daiso to start charging GST ahead of the hike in 2023
In the notice, Daiso thanked customers for their support and shared that they “strive to keep our products as affordable as possible. To continue improving the quality of our products, there will be a price change. All prices will be exclusive of GST from 1st May 2022.”
Merchants raising GST now?
You see, the first increase in GST from 7 per cent to 8 per cent will only take place on Jan 1, 2023, and the second increase from 8 per cent to 9 per cent will take place on Jan 1, 2024. But some merchants are already increasing the prices of their goods and services ahead of time.
Currently 7%, the GST is a broad-based consumption tax levied on the import of goods, as well as nearly all supplies of goods and services in Singapore. It is thus a tax on consumer spending. In other words, you spend more, you pay more tax lah.
During Budget 2022, the Government announced the Household Support Package to provide support for daily essentials, the Assurance Package for GST to cushion the impact of the planned increase, and enhancements to the permanent GST Voucher scheme to provide continuing help to defray the expenses of lower- to middle-income Singaporean households, beyond the Assurance Package.
While many are lamenting the hike, and seeing it as a conspiracy to take our hard-earned money, perhaps think about how that extra tax revenue will go into supporting Singapore’s future needs – especially our fellow citizens in the lower-income groups – in the years to come? #ICYMI, by 2030, government expenditure is expected to rise to more than 20 per cent of GDP, most of which will go to healthcare. Money come from where leh?
All the questions you’re dying to ask about GST, and also hard truths about the GST hike to 9%
