Oral reply to PQ on disclosing emissions and carbon tax relief of individual companies

Question 

Mr Foo Cexiang: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Ministry will consider disclosing the carbon tax relief given to individual companies and the emissions of their facilities to subject them to greater scrutiny and strengthen their incentive to decarbonise.

Oral Answer (to be attributed to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong)

1. We plan to release aggregated data on carbon tax allowances in 2027. As Ministry of Trade and Industry had previously shared, we need to find a suitable balance between providing transparency on allowances while at the same respecting the legitimate commercial sensitivities of companies.

2. I want to reassure members that allowances are not a free pass for Emissions-Intensive and Trade-Exposed companies to continue emitting business as usual. They are judiciously assigned for only a proportion of a company’s Scope 1 emissions. Recipient companies must also submit credible net-zero decarbonisation plans, which the Government reviews and holds them accountable for.

3. We will review and adjust allowances based on how companies have delivered on their decarbonisation plans, as well as international developments and advancements in decarbonisation technologies.