e-Paper
UNPRECEDENTED $52B DRAWN FROM PAST RESERVES
Resilience and Solidarity Budgets: $21b
Fortitude Budget: $31b
THE UNITY BUDGET
When: Feb 18
How much: $6.4b
Key features:
- $800 million: Set aside for various ministries to respond to Covid-19
- $4 billion: Stabilisation and Support Package, including the Jobs Support Scheme
- $1.6 billion: Care and Support Package including $300 cash payouts for every adult Singapore
THE RESILIENCE BUDGET
When: March 26
How much: $48.4b
Key features
- $15.1 billion Enhanced Jobs Support Scheme
- $1.2 billion Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme
- lSGUnited Traineeships and Jobs Initiative
- Enhanced cash payouts for individuals and households
- Enhanced property tax rebates and rental waivers lEnhanced support packages for aviation, tourism, land transport and arts sectors
THE SOLIDARITY BUDGET
When: April 6
How much: $5.1b
Key features
- Care and Support Package payment for every adult Singaporean raised to $600, now called Solidarity Paymen
- Further enhancements to Jobs Support Scheme
- Broader criteria for Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme
- Foreign worker levy waiver
- More financing support and rental waivers
THE FORTITUDE BUDGET
When: May 26
How much: $33b
Key features
- Jobs Support Scheme extended to August; will now cover 10 months of wages
- SGUnited schemes for job creation, traineeships and skills development. For example, 40,000 jobs will be created by the end of the year with 15,000 in the public sector and 25,000 in private sector; 21,000 traineeships for local first-time job seekers, and 4,000 traineeships for those aged 40 to 60 to learn new skills and start new careers
- Incentives for employers who hire local workers of all ages
- Foreign worker levy waivers and rebates extended for businesses that cannot resume operations after the circuit breaker period
- Raising of Central Provident Fund contribution rates for senior workers deferred by a year
- Cash grants to help small and medium-sized enterprises with rental costs
- More rental waivers for tenants of government properties
- Financing support for start-ups lBonuses for hawkers and retailers who adopt e-payment systems
- Enhanced payouts for those who have lost their jobs or are on no-pay leave
- One-off $100 utilities credit for every household with a Singaporean, since people were working from home during the circuit breaker
- Scheme to help every secondary school student own a digital learning device to be accelerated
- Scheme to help seniors become more digitally savvy to be launched; financial support given to lower-income seniors who want to own digital devices
- Top-ups for fund-raising programmes to help charities and social service agencies
The Straits Times
"Every dollar that we have saved has been saved by careful counting over the years. In spending this national savings now, we must make every dollar spent count."
- DPM Heng Swee Keat
