Singapore has presented a fourth Budget for the year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance,
Singapore, noted that the situation is uncertain, and that Singapore is
impacted by developments around the world. "The global economy is
unlikely to recover quickly. We must be prepared for tough times,in the
months ahead," he warned.
The S$33 billion Supplementary Budget focuses on supporting workers and businesses affected by border closures and safe distancing measures.
Highlights include:
Jobs Support Scheme
- Supporting businesses on cash flow through enhancing the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), which supports firms in retaining and paying their workers. The JSS has been extended by a month, computed based on the wages paid in August 2020. Firms will receive the payout in October 2020.
Under the JSS, the
government contributed up to 75% of the first S$4,600 of wages in April
for every local employee. When the circuit breaker was extended in May,
this support was extended to May.
- For firms that cannot resume operations immediately
after the circuit breaker (Singapore's version of a lockdown), wage
support continues at 75% until August 2020 or when they are allowed to
re-open, whichever is earlier. This includes retail outlets, gym and
fitness studios, and cinemas.
- Refining the classification of firms in the different JSS tiers
due to industry feedback. Wage support for firms in sectors that are
more severely impacted will now go up from the previous 25% to either
75% or 50%. A retrospective payment will be made by July.
"I
urge leaders in our industries to use this additional cushion to retain
your staff, speed up adaptation, and move towards a viable business
model. Please make full use of the schemes available to train workers
and upgrade your corporate capabilities," Heng said.
Foreign Worker Levy
- The Foreign Worker Levy waiver
and rebate has been extended for up to two months for businesses not be
allowed to resume operations on-site immediately after the circuit
breaker is lifted. This will include all businesses in the construction,
marine and offshore, and process sectors.
The waiver will be 100% in June, and 50% in July, while the rebate will be S$750 in June, and S$375 in July.
CPF contributions for seniors
- Deferred from 1 January 2021 to 1 January 2022. The CPF Transition Offset scheme will be deferred until after the higher contribution rates take effect.
Rental reliefs for SMEs
- A cash grant to offset the rental costs of SME tenants, to be disbursed through property owners.
- A new Bill that
if passed, will mandate that landlords grant a rental waiver to SME
tenants which have suffered a significant revenue drop in the past few
months.
- The new Bill will also provide for
temporary relief from contractual terms such as excessive late payment
interest or charges. It will also allow tenants to repay arrears through
instalments.
-
A total rental waiver of four months for commercial tenants of
government properties. Stallholders in hawker centres and markets
managed by Government agencies will get five months of rental waivers.
Industrial, office, and agricultural tenants of government agencies will
receive two months of rental waiver.
Together with the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets,
the Singapore government is dedicating almost S$100 billion (S$92.9
billion)–to support its people. The figure is nearly 20% (19.2%) of
Singapore's GDP.
The Emerging Stronger Taskforce, set up to plan
for emerging stronger in a post-COVID world, is studying the rise of
digital transformation, as well as the decline in support for
globalisation, and shifts in global supply chains, Heng shared.
"These
shifts were already taking place, but COVID-19 has accelerated them.
Our businesses must adapt, and we will support them in this," he said.
More
than S$500 million has been set aside to support businesses in their
digital transformation. "Those who are willing to transform will not be
left behind," Heng promised.
Help is available for specific
businesses which have not yet digitalised, For example, Heng said IMDA,
NEA, JTC, HDB, and Enterprise Singapore will provide a bonus of S$300
per month over five months to encourage more stallholders in hawker
centres, wet markets, coffee shops, and industrial canteens to use
e-payments.
Businesses which are ready to take their basic payment and invoicing functions digital. The existing SMEs Go Digital programme was enhanced for COVID with Food Delivery and e-commerce Booster Packages. More than 10,000 food services and retail establishments have benefitted from these packages and gone online, Heng said.
Digital Resilience Bonus
A Digital Resilience Bonus will
now add a further boost to digitalising businesses, beginning with the
food and beverage (F&B) and retail sectors, as these are the "most
affected by the safe distancing requirements as we re-open the economy".
Eligible businesses can receive a payout of up to S$5,000 if they adopt PayNow Corporate and e-invoicing, as well as business process or e-commerce solutions.
The Digital Resilience Bonus
will have an additional tier of S$5,000 for F&B and retail
businesses which also incorporate advanced solutions. S$250 million is
earmarked to help businesses digitalise in partnership with digital
platform solution providers and industry champions on projects such as
developing offline-to-online (O2O) business models.
New digital
platforms will also be built for online teaching and learning, and
integrated with the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and learning
science findings.
Encouraging innovation
To catalyse innovation via partnerships, a set of National Innovation Challenges will be introduced that ride on the success of the existing Open Innovation Platforms.
The
partnerships are to focus on developing industry-led solutions to
challenges that all businesses are grappling with: starting with how we
can reopen Singapore safely – to achieve safe workplaces, safe homes,
safe schools, and safe commuting.
"We hope that corporates,
startups and others in the private and people sectors can step forward
to form partnerships to provide solutions that can be scaled. The
government will provide support for this innovation drive," Heng said.
A new SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package
is to create close to 100,000 opportunities in three areas – 40,000
jobs, 25,000 traineeships and 30,000 opportunities for skills training.
Specifically, the public sector will bring forward hiring to meet
long-term needs in areas such as early childhood education, healthcare
and long-term care.
In the short-term, there are 15,000
vacancies related to COVID-19 operations, such as healthcare declaration
assistants and swabbers. The government will also work with businesses
to create 25,000 jobs, Heng said.
Training
To
ensure people have the right skills to take on the planned jobs,
capacity will be expanded in career conversion programmes, such as in Place-and-Train conversion programmes under the Adapt and Grow Initiative, and Company-Led Training programmes under the TechSkills Accelerator or TeSA
initiative. As of December 2019, over a thousand people have been
trained in partnership with industry leaders such as Accenture, DBS
Bank, and Google under TeSA, Heng shared.
"Over 90% of
them have been emplaced in ICT-related roles. I look forward to more
industry partners coming on board, to help prepare more Singaporeans for
a future where digitalisation becomes increasingly important," he said.
Job-seekers
will be able to gain industry-relevant experience through traineeships,
with the possibility of gaining a permanent job with their host
companies at the end of their traineeship. About 25,000 traineeship
positions are to be created, 21,000 from the SGUnited Traineeships programme, and another 4,000 places under a new SGUnited Mid-Career Traineeships scheme, from June.
The SGUnited Traineeships programme was announced in the Resilience Budget
in April 2020, targeting local first-time job seekers. Under the
programme, WSG funds the training allowances with host companies for up
to 12 months.
"I am glad to see strong interest from more than a
thousand host companies. The public sector is also keen to offer new
traineeship opportunities. With this momentum, I will more than double
the provision, to provide 21,000 traineeships this year," Heng updated.
To
support Singapore's technology and innovation drive, the traineeships
will include technology-related areas that are in high demand or
emerging rapidly. For example, agencies in our research and development
sector, including universities, A*STAR research institutes, AI
Singapore, and SGInnovate will work with local deep-tech companies and
startups to allow trainees to work with industry partners on real-world
science and technology projects. These will include areas such as
software learning and AI.
A new SGUnited Mid-Career Traineeships
scheme has further been created for unemployed mid-career job seekers
involving 4,000 traineeships. As part of this initiative, WSG's Attach-and-Train programmes under the Adapt and Grow Initiative - targeted at mid-career individuals - will be scaled up.
SGUnited Skills
Another programme, SGUnited Skills, has also been introduced, with capacity for about 30,000 job seekers. Participants of this SGUnited Skills programme can take industry-relevant and certifiable training courses full-time, at highly-subsidised rates. SGUnited Skills
will also offer participants a training allowance of S$1,200 per month
during the course of their training. The programme will be rolled out
progressively from July 2020.
"The course fees can be substantially,if not fully offset by the SkillsFuture Credit," Heng said.
"Job
seekers will be given opportunities to apply their training, through
attachments or participation in company projects. They will also be
provided with career guidance and job placement support."
SkillsFuture Mid-Career Support Package enhanced
In the Unity Budget, rolled out in February 2020, the government announced a hiring incentive under the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Support Package.
This has now been beefed up. For eligible workers aged 40 and above,
the incentive is now doubled to cover 40% of their salary over six
months, capped at S$12,000 in total. For eligible workers under 40, the
incentive will cover 20% of their monthly salary over six months, capped
at S$6,000 in total.
"Together with other support, such as the special SkillsFuture Credit top-up
of S$500 to every Singaporean aged 40 to 60 in 2020, we are providing
specially-enhanced support for jobs and training for this group. If
needed, they can also benefit from other support schemes this period,
such as the COVID-19 Support Grant," Heng said.
Details:
Download a booklet detailing the Fortitude Budget
