Singapore SAF levy: what evidence should you keep?

In Singapore, a levy on flights will finance SAF, or Sustainable Aviation Fuel. For an operator or its customer, the invoice will state the amount charged. Reporting a climate benefit will need a separate record identifying what was allocated to that organisation.

That distinction follows from the scheme’s design: fuel is purchased collectively, while its climate benefit is allocated to beneficiaries. Payment therefore does not mean that this fuel was delivered into the customer’s aircraft.

Check two dates when selling a flight

In its announcement of 3 September 2026, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, CAAS, sets the following schedule for general and business aviation:

• Services sold from 1 October 2026.
• Flights departing Singapore from 1 January 2027.

Both conditions matter. The levy must appear as a separate line in the fare breakdown, like other taxes and charges. The invoice and booking should therefore let someone retrieve both the sale date and departure date.

Air freight follows a different schedule: sales from 1 October 2027 and departures from 1 January 2028. The dates above should not be applied to freight.

Where do the money and fuel go?

The proceeds will enter a SAF fund established by law. They will finance sustainable fuel, associated environmental benefits and the scheme’s administrative costs. SAFCo, a non-profit company owned by CAAS, is responsible for collecting the levy and organising purchases and allocations.

The official CAAS annex shows three separate flows: money, physical fuel and environmental benefits. The first fuel delivery financed by the levy is expected in mid-2027. That collective procurement schedule establishes no delivery on an individual flight.

CAAS defines an environmental attribute as the value associated with the difference in CO2 emissions between SAF and an equivalent amount of conventional fuel over their full lifecycle. The calculation therefore extends beyond combustion during flight. The attribute allows a benefit to be tracked separately from physical fuel under the scheme’s rules.

Who can report which benefit?

CAAS distinguishes two components. The terms come from emissions accounting:

• Scope 1: the operator’s direct emissions, including those from fuel burned by its aircraft.
• Scope 3: a customer’s indirect emissions, such as a company’s business travel.

For the Scope 1 component, CAAS plans an allocation proportional to each operator’s contribution. The announced approach includes operators contributing more than 0.01% of the total levies collected. A small business aviation operator should therefore not assume that it will automatically receive an allocation.

SAFCo will centrally manage Scope 3 components and Scope 1 components not allocated to operators. They will be made available to organisations addressing emissions from business travel or freight. Proceeds from those sales are intended to finance more SAF.

The operator and its customer thus occupy different positions. An allocation to the operator does not establish one to the customer. To support a report, each needs to identify its component, allocated quantity, period and applicable reporting rules.

Fictional case: a charter flight in February 2027

This example is invented to explain the records process. An operator sells a flight in November 2026 for departure from Singapore in February 2027. Both dates fit the announced schedule. The levy appears separately on the invoice.

The customer then asks whether its company can report an emissions reduction because of that payment. The operator can confirm the contribution charged. From this invoice alone, it cannot conclude that the aircraft received SAF or that the customer holds a Scope 3 component.

The operator retains its return and payment to the scheme. If it receives a Scope 1 allocation, it records it separately. A customer acquiring a Scope 3 component retains its own evidence. These documents answer different questions; none should stand in for all the others.

Connect the supporting records

Kepler suggests organising the file around three questions:

1. What was paid? Connect the sale, flight, levy line and supporting return and remittance records.
2. What was received? If an allocation occurs, retain its issuer, beneficiary, reference, period, component and quantity or unit.
3. What was reported? Connect the published claim to that allocation, with its calculation, reporting framework and approver.

These are working recommendations, not a CAAS-mandated form. Keeping references and corrections helps identify an allocation used twice within the same reporting framework. Official status terms and required procedures must come from the applicable SAFCo instructions.

What still needs detail

The release and annex, checked on 12 September 2026, give the dates, roles and allocation principle. These documents do not specify every registry field, the evidence format or the procedure for correcting an allocation. The release says SAFCo is working with operators on collection procedures and systems.

Before announcing an individual benefit, obtain the allocation records and check the instructions then applicable. The file should support a simple explanation: here is the payment, here is the benefit received, and here is what our report can substantiate.