People walk past the Merlion statue with the backdrop of the Marina Bay waterfront in Singapore on Jan. 3, 2024. Photo by AFP
Singapore’s community development councils (CDCs) plan to collaborate with e-commerce sites to remove listings of vouchers intended to ease cost-of-living pressures.
They will also take down listings for SG60 vouchers, which are given out to celebrate the city-state’s 60th year of independence, The Straits Times reported, quoting a CDC spokesperson on Thursday.
“The vouchers are not for resale and are not exchangeable for cash,” the person said.
The CDC voucher scheme was initially launched in 2020 to ease households’ living expenses and support merchants impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The most recent batch of this voucher, worth S$500, was distributed in May and is valid until Dec. 31, 2025, according to Channel News Asia. The website for the scheme said the sale of these vouchers is not permitted.
The SG60 vouchers were given out starting last month and are usable until Dec. 31, 2026, with citizens aged 21 to 59 receiving S$600 and those 60 or older getting S$800.
Both types of vouchers function similarly: half can be spent at eight supermarket chains with 400 outlets islandwide, while the remainder is accepted at over 23,000 participating hawker stalls and heartland businesses.
According to AsiaOne, listings for SG60 vouchers began appearing on the online marketplace Carousell shortly after their release on July 1, with some bundled with CDC vouchers in “package deals.”
Sellers advertised them as “CD Vouchers” or “supermarket voucher” to slip past the site’s moderation system.
Most listings were cheaper than the vouchers’ value, with the top asking price at $600 for vouchers worth $800.
A Carousell spokesperson told Shin Min Daily News that the platform takes unlawful transactions like these seriously and that it employs artificial intelligence to monitor new listings and promptly remove those that breach rules.
Users are also encouraged to report any suspicious or illegal listings, the spokesperson added.
