Getting the 9% GST back as a tourist

• Spend at least S$100, GST included. Up to 3 receipts from the same day can be added together if they are from the same shop name with the same GST registration number.
• Show your original passport in person when you pay. Photocopies and photos of it are not accepted. Ask for the eTRS transaction and keep the original receipt.
• Shops that do it through an agency show a Global Blue or Global Tax Free sign.

• You must be 16 or over on the day of purchase, not a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, not crew on the aircraft you leave on, and not holding a Singapore work pass, student pass, dependant's pass or long-term visit pass (now or in the 3 months before the purchase).
• Goods only, not services, and not hotel stays. Goods used up or partly used in Singapore, goods for business, and goods sent out by freight do not qualify.

• Refunds are only given when you leave from Changi Airport or Seletar Airport, with the goods, within 2 months of buying them. Arrive early.
• Goods you will check in: claim at the GST refund area in the departure check-in hall before you check them in. Goods you carry on: claim in the departure transit lounge, after immigration.
• At the eTRS self-help kiosk you scan your passport, make the declarations, confirm the purchases you are taking out and choose how to be paid. Customs may ask to see the goods, the original receipts and your boarding pass.
• At Changi you can be refunded to a credit card (within 10 days), to Alipay (at once) or in cash at the GST Cash Refund counter in the departure transit lounge. Seletar offers credit card or Alipay. You must leave within 12 hours of the refund being approved.
• What you get back is less than the GST you paid: the shop or refund agency takes a handling fee.

• IRAS: Tourist Refund Scheme
• IRAS: current GST rate

Read 2026-10-01.