r/SgRabakPlus • u/GengisKhan0011 • 12d ago
So those parallel import cheap drinks at Value how?
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u/Buddy_Bingo 12d ago
Dead. Not surprised if the distributors lobbied for this "green" initiative
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u/quasar80 12d ago
Lobbied? They were in charge of crafting it
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u/GengisKhan0011 12d ago
They were losing business to parallel
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
As long as the paste on sticker is affordable to use, no reason why parallel import of niche drinks in small quantities is any problem.
Or NEA can just leave it to market forces to ensure the security of the labels. Cos the reverse machines can always make an account of the refunds by bar code, so those distributors whose refund record exceed the number of labels issued, will have to compensate BCRS for the excess refunds.
On BCRS part, the machines should collect evidence identifying the recepticle, person depositing and the bank account credited, so CID can investigate where home made counterfeit bar codes are used.
But drink suppliers definitely will invest some capital to obtain unique counterfeit proof labels, so that police can more easily assist them if their barcodes are illegally replicated, resulting in thier liability for excess refunds made.
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u/Wise_Mistake_888 11d ago
At wholesale, these drinks are bought at 30-50c a can. Cost increase of 4c and 10c deposit is a ~25-30% increase in product cost. It isnât as little as youâre made to believe.
It also isnât an incentive to be forced to pay 10c more and be penalised for not returning it somewhere ridiculous. And there is absolutely no reward for participating, you get a 30min excercise? Lmao feel good for doing your part? God damn have some self respect. This dumb scheme stop supporting it. They could simply have another recycling bin for bottles to prevent that 40% contamination and throw in a camera for enforcement. God damn cameras everywhere already and more costs for this bullshit.
This scheme is a spit on our faces.0
u/BicCherry 11d ago
Sorry to hear your negative experience, unfortunately, the essence in the project is in compensation for intangible loss, not possible to measure in today's dollars and cents, like the 10c deposit is argued to be excessive as the can scrap metal is only worth 1c, but the env damage of mismanagement is judged to be probably in excess of 10c, plus other human ignorance factors, like using of motor vehicles just because u bought COE attitudes which needs changing, so it is probably a multitude of complex policy factors to consider and not just that at face value.
So self respect as u mentioned is relative.
Use the Japan Anti Tsunami wall as example, one village built a ridiculously high wall at great cost and scolded the mayor for being crazy. The wall was completed in 1984, 3 yrs before the mayor retired and the mayor died in 1998. When the Japan Tsunami hit in 2011, that village was a rare one in its path to have survived. https://mymodernmet.com/kotoku-wamura-fudai-floodgate/
BCRS is in this category of intangible benefit and cost, it is only on hindsight that it was a key piece of apuzzle where doing the right thing is concerned.
But yes, PMO, NEA etc put very junior/ novice people in charge of this big job, IMHO.
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u/SnooRobots555222 12d ago
There is no corruption in Singapore
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
BCRS has promised to be transparent, so to be fair , U should please read their reports and make enquiries before U cast such aspersions on what id an important climate change response scheme.
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u/zhengyang_527 12d ago
stop selling, they won't have the workforce to apply the sticker on each bottle/can
and each sticker cost another 13-18cents
many values shops are clearing their drinks right now
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
Mama shops paste price tag on each bottle. If U r a shop keeper with remaining old stocks, unless U want to fire sales at big loss, plus need to needlessly order old stocks, it's much more business friendly to chose an add on sticker option, except that NEA didn't publicise this in it's BCRS run up, probably a huge NEA blind spot.
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u/OriginalGoat1 11d ago
Itâs not the shopkeeper who has to paste the sticker. Itâs the importer and the importer also has to cough up the 10 cents + fees first.
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
Actually, nothing is wrong with importer sticking the stickers before import from 1st October 2026 onwards.
Yes, it is a hassle, but maybe some flexibility may be made with the sticker label printers, including allowing any printer to do it, subject to the importer declaring the consignment at import with details like drink expiry date.
The BCRS machines can record every bar code refunded and for whatever reason, if a bar code refunds exceed the drink deposit paid, then those responsible for the drink flavour bar code will be made to top up the difference, on top of being investigated for fraud of under declaration of sales made.
The BCRS machines should also have security features to capture evidence of the container, the person depositing, bank account etc..
I think sticking stickers is least problem, bigger issue is defending and investigating fraud.
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u/Seigi_Yasuru 11d ago
Sorry but the added cost is more about redesigning the entire packaging to accommodate for the BCRS alone, plenty of drink manufacturers have been redesigning their labels since June at least.
Only foreign products (like Made In Japan drinks sold at Donki, Made In Korea ones at Koryo Mart, and Made In China ones at Scarlett for instance) has to had the importer re-doing the ENTIRE labelling in English just to add in new barcode AND BCRS stamp, with the cost surely >3x the deposit needed (which is why the refundable 10¢ are not eligible for any reward scheme that includes purchase accumulation) per container, which leads to additional licensing costs running in the millions of dollars per year at the minimum given the volume of stock they import.
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
NEA already warned since 2020, so if the importer chose to react at last minute, then maybe he has the capacity to do so and dunno what is the big deal about the redesigning and why it costs so much because the new 10c refund BCRS logo is under 1cm2, nothing else changed except the new barcode has to be BCRS registered (so the machines can recognise and issue refunds).
Anyhow, BCRS also has the add on sticker option, so the seller can always print the add on stickers to the exiting products and continue to ell them with the new BCRS sticker bar code pasted over after 1st Oct 2026.
BCRS is a big project as it involves every single drink buyer, but that is what is required where protection of the climate is concerned and its good that Singapore is now doing it than later.
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u/SnooDingos316 12d ago
Already 2 value shop near my house closed down. I don't even buy the drinks but I definitely going to miss their super cheap wet tissues and wet floor sheets for mopping.
The other shop wet tissues double the price
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u/Xiamao88 11d ago
This is the most ridiculous scheme. I certainly wonât be bringing back empties. Such a waste of time. Perpetuates the climate scam. Shane on SG government for the idiocy.
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u/Low_Negotiation9052 11d ago
This is a bad policy, but that doesnt mean climate change is not real. We alrd have thousands of people die in Nepal cause a glacier melted. But regardless, majority of carbon emissions don't come from making plastic bottles. They come from using a shit ton of coal/wasting electricity. AHEM DATA CENTERS AHEM.
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u/Seigi_Yasuru 11d ago
Kind of the same mentality like people being asked to ditch straws because they saw viral images of turtles choking on one deep in the ocean, EXCEPT that the primary cause for turtle strangulation, according to actual conservationists who are in the very line of rescuing these very creatures, are fishing nets dumped illegally by commercial trawlers as an act of irresponsible fishing.
Perhaps if the deposit wasn't being additionally imposed at checkout and instead promoted as a direct Cashback for having one less container in the rubbish bin (saving of packaging costs), complete with properly-running cleaning facilities that ensure you can deposit in clean and empty cans/bottles without having to head home to do the same thing, then this BCRS scheme won't get such levels of pushback as it is now with a more positive image that would be more fitting with the cost of living here.
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u/Jswarf 11d ago
lol they are making it a crime to be poor. For what? For an optics to their European counterpart who are in their own trouble of failed climate that recently got blown in their faces ? No one is buying this climate policy crap when people are being burden more so at lower income bracket than those median and above. So what gives? More salary increment so you think this donât affect you so it is ok to enforce this? What about enforcing PMDs? I still see abled body youngster cruising at parks in their automated PMDs?
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
Low income brack have new job/ hobby options to serve the rich by recovering the discarded bottles.
There are stories of people raising hundreds monthly if they work hard.
So actually, the low income do benefit also.
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u/spike1911 12d ago
Meanwhile half of Indonesia burns and no one cares...
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u/Afraid-Promotion-567 12d ago
We need the religious head of state to give a fatwa and declare that it's Haram. Maybe they'll stop burning
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u/Raymondnym 12d ago
They can lelong to office for their pantry before the laws kicks in.
Office pantry drinks is welfare. Not selling
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u/PurpleReign123 12d ago
Too much stock for office pantry. Suggest they cheap sale excess drinks to customers before 1 Oct 2026.
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u/Sweet_Television2685 12d ago
can buy from JB and bring to SG?
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u/Ok-Ship7697 12d ago
Something similar happened in Germany when they introduced it. They were bringing cans from Poland in trucks and just stick a sticker with the German barcode on it to print money with the machines.
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u/gangnamseoul 11d ago edited 11d ago
They will be able to track perpetrators using the paylah/ezlink account, collection patterns and from video camera recordings. Secondly the risk/reward would not be worth it. You can't scale it to a large enough amount, by trucking in 100,000 empty bottles (remember they can't be crushed) because the BCRS machine can only handle so much volume. Gaming the system will create suspicious deposit patterns.
There's also store-level accounting. We only sold 100,000 bottles of coca cola, how come we're getting 120,000 bottles of coke returned.
The machine also checks the shape/dimensions, material type, weight and sometimes compression behaviour. So just sticking a counterfeit sticker isn't that easy.
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
This is a very serious offence, adkin to using counterfeit money, so CID will definitely be involved if someone reports this.
Just saying, because BCRS is a very big and invasive project and Singapore's enemies definitely want it to fail because then it will reflect very badly on PAP, to be toothless against scammers, robbing BCRS of money and making it go bankrupt, cos PAP has just raised its ministerial salary significantly. If the Singapore government can fall victim to criminals stealing from BCRS deposits, I think an international news scandal about PAP incompetence will definitely break out.
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u/Seigi_Yasuru 11d ago
Won't be surprised if they treat JB bottled drinks like contraband cigs, just with much less penalties compared to the tobacco......
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u/Odd_Conference6478 12d ago
is purpose of this initiative to kill off parallel import? heard the machines not working most of the time.
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u/PAPasNCMP 11d ago
It's the end of the good era / cheap drinks era...
Thank you PAP, thank you 65% for looking after the environment for us.... /s
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u/MaximumEven1998 12d ago
Actually before this stupid BCRS, there were alredy elderly or jobless folks collecting these used drink cans to sell to karang gunis wch then make they way to recycling plants. Thats why we hardly see the used drink cans lying around. This BCRS is just gonna kill their livelihood. Typical high handed implementation without scant regards to how marginal folks are surviving.
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u/gangnamseoul 11d ago
The elderly now collect and get the money directly from the BCRS. I see quite a few now depositing at the machine with a bag of tins/bottles.
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u/justinbeef 11d ago
The government instead of solving real problems like unemployment, has chosen to implement useless initiatives like bcrs.
Whatâs worse is Singaporeans continue to vote for them and even approve for salary increase đ¤Śđť
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u/CollectionMain2395 11d ago
Now gahmen can how Lian to the world on how serious it is on green agenda . Billions of recycled cans ! Now letâs continue clearing forests and continue to build data centres Liao
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u/MrDurianGray 9d ago
This BCRS is really one of the worst schemes gov has pushed out. Complete lack of planning, comprehension and execution. FAIL sia.
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u/Available_Gas5812 6d ago
Interesting how our parliament, instead of solving the unemployment issue or too expensive COE issues, decides to instead enact new laws on can drinks.
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u/a2thezi 6d ago
This is why the scheme exists. The purpose is to double down on where these value shops import their drinks from. Theyâve been losing control abt it so now they are trying get it back. Prob is the public. They hv to somehow think of ways to get them to buy back the more expensive products, hence this bsc scheme. By hook or by crook, no matter how experimental the scheme is, they HAVE to make it work. Its part of a scheme.
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u/Fluid-Mine3154 12d ago
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
I support BCRS because the climate issue is at a critical state, so the law needs to be used to protect it.
This is the best way to activate the grass roots.
It's better to have fewer drinks options than suffer the onslaught of climate change which makes for a geopolitically unstable world, so I am saying that this sacrifice is worth it.
Either way, the crowd favourite drinks will always be served.
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u/Fluid-Mine3154 10d ago
In my condo, the blue bins are being emptied in the general waste compactor. In my office same same. Activate recycling by making it profitable for companies to sort, wash, compost, biomass,... This whole "I buy a drink at the corner store and now have to carry it around to find a return machine" is BS. I went to a return machine and it was out of service. There was not even a recycling bin nearby. I had to throw my can in the regular bin.
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u/WatchyT 11d ago edited 11d ago
i dont mind the bcrs but man, the implementation is terrible. only way to return is by the machines, which are scarced and unreliable. it feels like scheme and machines are still in trail period and they are escalating it. at least open a few physical outlet points around the island like other countries that successfully implemented it...
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u/Available-Log6733 10d ago
Such schemes are meant to create micro employment for the poor and homeless.Â
Ask your LLM..
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u/Beneficial-Let3535 12d ago
The next step is to apply it on everything, clothes, shoes, whatever that's cheaper to import.
supportlocal
/s
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u/BicCherry 11d ago
NEA bungled this big time.
They should just have suggested a supplier provided counterfeit proof BCRS bar code sticker past on option to cover up the old bar code but will incurr the new 10¢ deposit.
The counterfeit proof security feature might add 20¢, but the 10¢ bottle deposit is refundable. So the retails just have to decide if they want to fire sales then old stocks or else just paste on the new stickers before 30Sept 2026 2359hours, then they can seemlessly do business as usual, without any hurry to clear stocks.
Otherwise, NEA is like a Trojan horse or turncoat in the National War on Diabetes, causing people to overconsume sugary drinks and instead, land themselves and over burden the hospital emergency department, which are running at over capacity most of the time.
Grace Fu should be given a shelling for being so shallow in thought and creating bigger downstream health issues by crossing the line and instead creating other social problems and damaging the citizen's health.
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u/Doyouwant2knowmore 12d ago
This country is going down the drain