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BCRS for F&B in Singapore: How the 10¢ Beverage Container Deposit Works on Your POS (2026)

11 Jul 2026 • 11 min read

Since 1 April 2026, Singapore's Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) means many drinks now carry a small 10-cent refundable deposit. For a café or F&B business that sells canned or bottled drinks, that's a new line on every relevant sale — and getting it wrong quietly messes up your GST and your daily takings. This guide explains BCRS in plain terms and, more importantly, how your POS should handle it so you stay compliant without extra work.

This is a practical operator's overview, not legal advice — always confirm your exact obligations with NEA and the appointed scheme operator, as details can change.

What is BCRS?

BCRS is a deposit-refund scheme. When a customer buys a covered beverage, they pay a small deposit on top of the price. When they return the empty container to a designated return point (such as a reverse vending machine at a supermarket), they get the deposit back. The goal is simple: get more drink containers collected and recycled instead of thrown away.

The key idea for your till: the deposit is not part of the drink's price and is not your revenue. You collect it on behalf of the scheme. That single fact drives how it must appear on your POS and receipts.

Which drinks are covered?

BCRS applies to pre-packaged beverages in plastic bottles and metal cans, within a size range. The typical scope:

So the practical rule for most cafés: the deposit applies to the sealed cans and bottles you resell, not to drinks you prepare in-house. A canned Coke from your chiller is in scope; the flat white you pull is not.

How the 10¢ deposit works, end to end

1. You buy stock — covered drinks arrive already carrying the deposit in the supply chain.
2. Customer buys a covered drink — they pay the drink price plus the 10¢ deposit per container.
3. You collect the deposit — it's shown separately and passes through to the scheme; it is not your sales income.
4. Customer returns the empty — at a designated return point, and gets their 10¢ back.

Your responsibility at the counter is step 2 and 3: charge the deposit correctly, show it clearly, and account for it separately from your sales.

The GST catch — the part POS systems get wrong

Because the deposit is a refundable deposit and not a sale of goods, it is not subject to GST. This is where a naive setup goes wrong. If you just add a 10¢ "product" to the cart, your POS will happily charge GST on it and fold it into your taxable sales — overstating both your GST and your revenue.

Done correctly, the deposit must be:

• Added on top of the item price,
• Excluded from the GST calculation (GST is worked out on the goods, not the deposit),
• Shown as its own line on the receipt, clearly marked as a deposit and not a taxable charge.

If your POS can't separate the deposit from the taxable subtotal, you will slowly build a GST discrepancy. This is the single most important thing to check.

What your receipt should show

A compliant receipt for a covered drink shows the goods, GST on the goods, and the container deposit as a distinct, non-GST line — for example:

The customer can see exactly what the deposit is, and your books can separate scheme deposits from taxable sales.

What F&B operators need to do — a short checklist

• Identify your covered products — which cans and bottles you resell fall under BCRS.
• Charge the deposit on those items, on top of price, at every sale.
• Keep it outside GST so your tax stays correct.
• Show it clearly on receipts as a deposit.
• Track what you collected so you can reconcile and remit as required.
• Confirm obligations (return points, registration, labelling) with NEA / the scheme operator based on your business size and role.

How your POS should handle BCRS

The whole thing should be a setting, not a daily chore. A POS that handles BCRS well lets you:

• Flag a product as deposit-bearing once, so the 10¢ is added automatically every time it's sold.
• Add the deposit on top, outside GST, so the taxable subtotal and GST stay correct on their own.
• Print the deposit as a separate, clearly-labelled non-GST line on both printed and digital receipts.
• Report deposits collected over a period, so reconciliation is a click, not a spreadsheet.

How Shopways handles BCRS

Shopways has BCRS built in as a per-product deposit flag. Turn it on for the cans and bottles you resell, and from then on:

• the 10¢ deposit is added on top of the price and outside GST automatically, at the POS and on QR orders;
• receipts show a separate "container deposit — not GST" line, and the deposit is excluded from the GST derivation so your tax always reconciles;
• a deposits report totals what you've collected over any period for easy reconciliation.

It's collect-only and opt-in per product, so anything you don't flag behaves exactly as before — nothing changes for a café that only sells house-made drinks. This is part of Shopways being genuinely built for Singapore F&B, alongside PayNow and proper GST/service-charge handling.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Adding the deposit as a normal product — it gets taxed and counted as revenue. Wrong.
• Baking the deposit into the drink price — the customer can't see it, and it becomes taxable. Wrong.
• Charging it on in-house drinks — your own-cup latte isn't a covered container.
• Not reporting collections — makes reconciliation and any remittance painful later.

Frequently asked questions

Do I charge the deposit on a coffee I make in-house?

No. BCRS covers pre-packaged sealed containers (cans and plastic bottles). A drink you prepare and serve in your own cup is not a covered container, so no deposit applies.

Is the 10¢ deposit subject to GST?

No. It's a refundable deposit, not a sale, so it sits outside GST. Your POS must add it on top and exclude it from the GST calculation.

Does the deposit count as my sales revenue?

No — you collect it on behalf of the scheme. It should be tracked separately from your takings so you can reconcile and remit as required.

How do I set this up quickly?

On Shopways, flag the covered products with the BCRS toggle once; the deposit, receipt line and reporting are then automatic. Products you don't flag are unaffected.

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