Debated in Parliament on 3 Feb 2020.
Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) by what date will the Ministry collect carbon tax payments for 2019 emissions; (b) by what date does the Ministry plan to publish the total amount of carbon tax payments collected for 2019 emissions; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider releasing a breakdown of revenue collected from each taxable facility when the data is available.
The Carbon Pricing Act (CPA) came into force on 1 January 2019. The CPA gives effect to the carbon tax of $5 per tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent (tCO2e), to be paid using carbon credits purchased from the National Environment Agency (NEA). The carbon tax applies to facilities in the manufacturing, power generation, waste and water management sectors which emit 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide or more annually. These companies have been monitoring their emissions for the year 2019 and must submit verified emissions reports to NEA by 30 June 2020. Companies must pay their 2019 carbon tax liability by 30 September 2020.
The carbon tax revenues will be published annually in the Government's Budget Book, which is released in the first quarter of each year. The Government is unable to disclose company- or facility-specific data due to data confidentiality requirements as provided for in the CPA.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I am just hoping we can publish that data of what each company is paying. I think the public scrutiny on that, if you compare year by year, then I think the company's policy with regards on climate change will move much faster, if there is public scrutiny on that this.
The intention behind the carbon tax is to provide an economy-wide price signal. It is not meant to put scrutiny on facilities or companies. Therefore, what we do, by publishing the data on an economy-wide basis, I think would be more useful for the Government and the public to know which sectors we should be concentrating on and how we are going to move from there. So, we do not find it productive or correct to actually put any company under scrutiny because they pay their carbon tax or because they are compelled by the Act to do so.
I thank Minister for the reply but maybe as a step back, could we at least publish data based on facility type and size then, without naming the company. So, we know at least which industry is contributing more to carbon emissions in Singapore.
The number of companies that are affected by this Act is very small, around 40. But, they account for about 80% of the carbon emissions in our economy. So, even if you publish by facilities, you can actually do your Maths and make inferences on who is doing what; and I do not think that is what we want to get to.
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