Latest Resilience Budget - COVID-19 Crisis

[Pal]

OUR RESILIENCE BUDGET
Support Workers. Stabilise Businesses. Build Resilience.

Supporting Workers, Protecting Livelihoods

❖ Jobs Support Scheme (JSS)
• Government will pay 25% of monthly wages for every local worker in employment, capped at $4,600, for 9 months till end-2020
• Higher support for sectors more affected by COVID-19, of up to 75%

❖Wage Credit Scheme
• Additional payout to be brought forward from Sep to end-June 2020

❖ COVID-19 Support Grant
• Cash grant of $800 per month for 3 months, for low- and middle-income Singaporeans who lost their jobs due to COVID-19

❖ Temporary Relief Fund
• Provides immediate financial assistance for families whose livelihoods were affected by COVID-19

❖ NTUC Care Fund (COVID-19)
• Provides one-off relief of up to $300 per union member

❖ SGUnited Jobs
• About 10,000 jobs available over the next year, to facilitate employment for jobseekers

❖ SGUnited Traineeships
• Supports employers in providing traineeships to fresh graduates entering the labour force, to help boost employability for new graduates

❖ SkillsFuture Credit
• Advance use of SkillsFuture Credit top-ups for select courses, from 1 Apr 2020

Supporting Self-Employed Persons (SEPs)

❖ SEP Income Relief Scheme (SIRS)
• Eligible Singaporean SEPs will receive $1,000 a month, for 9 months

❖ SEP Training Support Scheme
• Extended till end-2020
• From 1 May 2020, training allowance enhanced to $10/hour

❖ Point-to-Point Support Package
• Special Relief Fund payments of $300 per vehicle per month for taxi hirers and private hire car drivers, till end-Sep 2020

❖ Enhanced Workfare Special Payment
• Benefits about 50,000 lower-income SEPs

Supporting Families

❖ Enhanced Care & Support Package
• Triple the current payout under Care & Support – Cash for all Singaporeans aged 21 and above in 2020, t0 $300, $600 and $900
• Parents, with at least one Singaporean child aged 20 and below in 2020, will each receive an additional $300
• All Singaporeans aged 50 and above in 2020 will receive their $100 PAssion Card Top-up in cash
• Singaporeans living in 1-room and 2-room HDB flats will receive $300 in Grocery Vouchers in 2020, and $100 in 2021
• Enhanced Workfare Special Payment to $3,000 in cash in 2020, for Singaporeans who received Workfare payments for work done in 2019
• Double the grant to Self-Help Groups to $20m over 2020 and 2021, and increase the grant to Community Development Councils to $75m in 2020

❖ Greater Flexibility on Government Fees and Loans
• Suspend student loan repayments and interest charges for 1 year, from 1 Jun 2020 to 31 May 2021, for graduates of Autonomous Universities and polytechnics
• Suspend late payment charges on HDB mortgage arrears for 3 months

Supporting Businesses

❖ Enhanced property Tax Rebate for 2020
• Increased Property Tax Rebate for qualifying commercial properties, such as hotels, Serviced Apartments, tourist attractions, shops and restaurants, from 15% or 30%, to 100%
• Increased Property Tax Rebate for Integrated Resorts from 10% to 60%
• All other non-residential properties will receive a new 30% Property Tax Rebate

❖ Enhanced Rental Waivers
• Increased rental waiver from 1 month to 3 months, for stallholders in hawker centres managed by NEA or NEA-appointed operators
• Increased rental waiver from 0.5 months t0 2 months, for eligible tenants of Government agencies
• All other non-residential tenants of Government agencies receive 0.5 months of rental waiver

❖ Cash Flow Support
• Expanded Temporary Bridging Loan Programme to all sectors, and increased maximum supported loan to $5m
• Increased maximum loan quantum to $1m under Enterprise Financing Scheme – SME Working Capital Loan
• Increased maximum loan quantum to $10m and Government risk-share to 80%, under Enterprise Financing Scheme – Trade Loan
• Increased subsidies for loan insurance premiums to 80% under Loan Insurance Scheme

❖ Support for Capability Development
• Raised maximum support levels for Productivity Solutions Grant and Enterprise Development
Grant to 80% and 90% respectively, till end-2020
• Enhanced SMEs Go Digital to support both ready-to-adopt and advanced digital solutions that
reduce face-to-face contact
• Extended the enhanced training support, comprising higher course fee subsidies and absentee
payroll support, to more sectors and till end-2020

❖ Resilience Building
• Enhanced government matching ratio under SG Together Enhancing Enterprise Resilience (STEER) programme
• Introduced funding support for specialised cleaning under SG Clean

Supporting Affected Sectors

❖ Aviation Sector
• Enhanced Jobs Support Scheme for businesses whose activities are based principally in the aviation sector, with a total of 75% wage offset, capped at a monthly wage of $4,600
• $350m Enhanced Aviation Support Package to provide cost relief for airlines, ground handlers and the cargo industry, as well as to maintain a minimum level of connectivity

❖ Tourism Sector
• Enhanced Jobs Support Scheme for hotels, travel agencies, tourist attractions, cruise terminals and operators, and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions (MICE) venue operators, with a total of 75% wage offset, capped at a monthly wage of $4,600
• $90m for tourism recovery efforts to help the sector rebound strongly when the time is right

❖ Food Services
• Enhanced Jobs Support Scheme for food & beverages firms, with a total of 50% wage offset, capped at a monthly wage of $4,600

❖ Land Transport Sector
• Special Relief Fund payments of $300 per vehicle per month for taxi hirers and Private Hire Car (PHC) drivers, till end-Sep 2020
• Additional support for taxi and PHC operators
• 1-year road tax rebate and 6-month waiver of parking charges at government-managed parking facilities for private bus owners, to defray operating cost

❖ Arts & Culture Sector
• $55m support package to safeguard jobs and retain capabilities, support capability development, and step up digitisation efforts