On 26 May 2020, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat announced the “Fortitude” Budget.
This $33 billion Supplementary Budget will provide support for businesses and workers to adapt, transform and seize new opportunities.
It also gives additional support for households and the community to cope with the disruptions and seize new opportunities in adversity.
In addition, the Fortitude budget provides funding to frontline agencies, to boost the clinical management of cases and swabbing and testing capabilities.
The Fortitude budget is this year’s fourth budget. It follows the previously announced Unity Budget, Resilience Budget and Solidarity Budget.
Here’s a snapshot of what was announced in the Fortitude Budget.
For workers
(i) The Job Support Scheme (JSS) will be enhanced in three ways:
- JSS will be extended for 1 more month to cover wages in August 2020
- For firms that cannot resume operations immediately after the circuit breaker, the Government will continue to provide wage support at 75% until August 2020, or when they are allowed to re-open (whichever is earlier)
- Increased support for some affected sectors (eg. aerospace sector, retail, marine and offshore) - an increase from the previous 25% to either 50% or 75%.
(ii) An SGUnited Jobs & Skills Package will create close to 100,000 opportunities in three areas – jobs, traineeships and skills training.
- Aim to create 40,000 jobs by end-2020
15,000 jobs in the public sector; 11,000 jobs in the private sector. The remaining 14,000 places will come from the expanded career conversion programmes, such as the Place-and-Train conversion programmes under the Adapt and Grow Initiative, and Company-Led Training programmes under the TechSkills Accelerator or TeSA initiative
- SGUnited Traineeships
The SGUnited Traineeships programme will provide 21,000 traineeships for local first-time job seekers. Applications open from 1 June. A new SGUnited Mid-Career Traineeships scheme will be created to provide 4,000 traineeships for mid-career job seekers.
- SGUnited Skills
Training courses will be available for about 30,000 jobseekers to upgrade their skills while looking for a job. A training allowance of $1,200 per month for a course duration (between 6 to 12 months) will cover basic expenses. This will be rolled out progressively from July.
- Incentives to hire local workers
There will be hiring incentive for employers which hire local workers who have completed eligible traineeship and training programmes. This will be expanded to cover workers of all ages.
For eligible workers under the age of 40, the incentive will be 20% of the monthly salary for 6 months, capped at $6,000 in total. For those 40 and above, the incentive will be 40% of the monthly salary for 6 months, capped at $12,000 in total.(iii) COVID-19 support grant
An additional $800m will be set aside for the COVID-19 support grant to support Singaporeans and PRs who need help. This includes those who have lost their jobs, are placed on no-pay leave or face significantly reduced salaries.
Eligible recipients will receive up to $800 per month for 3 months.
For more details on support for workers, click here.
For businesses
Supporting enterprises with cashflow, costs and credit (i) Foreign Worker Levy and Waiver Rebate
This will be extended by up to 2 months for businesses that are not allowed to resume on-site operations after the circuit breaker. There will be a 100% waiver and $750 rebate in June 2020, and a 50% waiver and $375 rebate in July 2020.
(ii) Higher CPF contribution rates will be deferred
The increase in CPF contribution rates for senior workers will be deferred by 1 year, from 1 Jan 2021 to 1 Jan 2022.
(iii) Cash grants to help SMEs with rental
$2 billion in cash grants will help SME tenants with rental costs. Including the property tax rebate for 2020, the Government will:
- Offset another 2 months’ rental for qualifying SME tenants of commercial properties;
- Offset 1 months’ rental for qualifying SME tenants of industrial and office properties.
There will also be additional rental waivers for commercial and other non-residential tenants of Government properties – including stall holders of hawker centres and markets, tenants of commercial buildings and industrial, office and agricultural tenants.
(iv) Financial support for promising startups
This includes $4.5b of loans through Government financial schemes like the Temporary Bridging Loan programme and the Enterprise Financing Scheme, and $285m additional financing support for promising startups by co-investing with the private sector.
There will also be support for businesses to go digital.
(i) Encouraging e-payments
A bonus of $300 per month over 5 months will encourage the adoption of e-payments by stallholders in hawker centres, wet markets, coffee shops and industrial canteens.
(ii) Digital resilience bonus
Starting with food services and retail sectors, a payout of up to $5,000 will help businesses digitalise, with PayNow Corporate, e-invoicing, business process or e-commerce solutions. There will be an additional payout of $5,000 for businesses that use advanced solutions.
For more details on support for businesses, click here.
For the community
There will be more help with household expenses.
- Solidarity Utilities Credit
A one-off $100 Solidarity Utilities Credit for each household with at least one Singapore Citizen will be credited in households’ July or August 2020 utilities bills with SP Group. This will cover all property types.
- Fostering digital inclusion
There will be an accelerated timeline for all secondary school students to own a digital learning device. For seniors, a Seniors Go Digital movement to build digital literacy through one-to-one coaching and small-group learning. There will be financial support for lower-income seniors to own digital devices.
- Support for charities and social services agencies
An Enhanced Fund-Raising Programme will provide dollar-for-dollar matching on eligible donations raised between 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, capped at $250,000 matching per charity.
The Invictus Fund will provide an $18m top-up to help social service agencies maintain services, retain staff and adopt technology.
- Support for charities
- Top-up to help social services agencies
For more details on support for the community, click here.
For more on the Fortitude Budget, click here.
For more on Budget 2020, visit http://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg
