What is a carbon tax and must residential users pay this tax?

Hi there!

A Carbon Tax is a charge levied on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with the ultimate aim of reducing the volume of emissions produced. The Singapore Carbon Pricing Act of 2018 is a regulation that will come into effect in 2019, requiring certain business activities that generate Carbon Dioxide equivalent GHGs of more than 25,000 tonnes to be liable for a Carbon Tax. Electricity Generation facilities will in all likelihood be liable for the Carbon Tax. This will be a cost that will be factored and passed through into the wholesale price of electricity also known as the Uniform Singapore Energy Price (USEP). Consumers will not be directly liable for any additional carbon taxes on their electricity consumption.

Ohm is not directly liable for any Carbon Taxes and does not include the Carbon Tax as a separate line item in our charges.

By regulation, retailers are not to pass on carbon tax to residential households.

On a side note, there are confusion around what is the carbon offset (CO2) on Ohm's website. Carbon Credits are different from Carbon Taxes. Carbon offset is 100% optional and voluntary. If you would like to go green, you can choose that option - The CO2 credits used in Ohm’s voluntary CO2 Offset Add-on are UN certified and represent one ton of carbon production (or equivalent GHG) decreased through a UN certified project.

It costs approximately $0.0054 per kWh inclusive of GST as at today.

Let us know if you have any questions. You can write to us at [email protected] or via our Facebook messenger. We will be happy to assist.

#TeamOhm

Our carbon tax will be an emission tax. It will be a tax based on the amount of greenhouse gases (mainly CO2, or any other) released into the atmosphere (Typically based on tons of CO2). Therefore it is not a tax on the carbon content of fuel. But the resultant greenhouse gas that gets into the air. Therefore emitters will be incentivised to reduce emission, by being more efficient in energy production, use cleaner source of fuel, better carbon capture methods etc.

The tax is proposed to be taxed at the source of the largest emitters here. While residents do not directly pay, we will indirectly pay. As producers' cost increase, they will likely pass on the cost to us over time.