Beer
I can’t say they did not warn me. Before coming to Singapore, I read over and over again that the tax on alcoholic beverages was a pain in the ass. Former fellows, guidebooks and blogs all noted how expensive alcohol is, and encouraged a trip to the duty-free store before leaving the airport.
Still, I was not prepared. Beer is usually more expensive than my usual meal. I pay an average of S$4.50 for lunch, and the cheapest beer I have seen in S$5.00 at a hawker center (you might be able to find one for S$4.50). That is the price for Tiger, which is a Singapore beer. For imported beers, you will have to pay a lot more. At a real restaurant or a bar, it is easy to drop hundreds of dollars on drinks. Small cans of, say, Heineken can cost S$15.
At the grocery store, the cheapest beer is a warm Chang (Thai) beer, which is about S$3.70 for a 660ml bottle. Most Asian beers cost between S$4-S$6, and imported beers can run you up to S$10+, depending on the size. In the states, if you don’t want to pay a lot for beer, you have the option of buying a lower-quality beer (Keystone, Nat Light, etc). In Singapore, you don’t have that option because of the tax…crappy beer is still going to be expensive.
The same is true for wine and liquor.
The best strategy is to buy this stuff on the way back from nearby countries. Of course, Singapore limits the amount you can bring in (about a liter, I think), but you’ll save a lot buying a duty-free bottle of whatever.
Cigarettes
I am glad I don’t smoke. In addition to the liquor, cigarettes are also heavily taxed. From what I have seen, you’ll have to pay between S$9-S$12 for a pack (which, actually is about the cost of a pack in NY ever since they raised the prices). Smuggling cigarettes into Singapore is a major offense, and there have been several busts in recent years (Singapore has some of the strictest immigration and customs policies and procedures in the world). If you are a smoker planning on traveling to Singapore, make sure you check the official customs website to see how many packs you can bring into the country.
To deter people from smoking, the government does not stop at high tax rates. They also require that all packs have a warning label, complete with an extremely graphic photo of anything from a cancerous mouth, to a rotting foot (think anti-abortion groups’ photos). It is disgusting. Other countries have used labels that say things like “smoking kills”, or “you will die younger”, but I have never seen a warning label quite like those in Singapore. Some young entrepreneur actually designed little stickers that you can buy to put over the graphic photos.
I’d post some photos, but I don’t want to take them, and you don’t want to see them.
