We refer to Mr Steve Er’s letter ‘Rental relief denied due to business address’ published in ST Forum on 8 December 2021.  

The Rental Support Scheme (RSS) is meant to help eligible tenant-occupiers of qualifying commercial properties during Phase 2 (Heightened Alert). The list of qualifying commercial properties can be found on the IRAS website.  

Mr Er operates a car wash and workshop business at petrol stations. We would like to clarify that ancillary services for petrol stations such as car wash and car workshops do not fall within the list of qualifying commercial properties under the RSS.

More than 80% of eligible businesses received their first and second RSS payouts automatically in August and September 2021 respectively. SMEs and NPOs that are eligible but did not receive the payout automatically could make an application to IRAS before 15 October and 12 November 2021 for the respective RSS payouts. IRAS strives to process the majority of RSS applications within 2 months of receiving complete information from applicants.  

We thank Mr Er for the opportunity to clarify.

Kelly Wee (Ms) 
Director (Corporate Communications)
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore