With the recent rise to 3.3% of the resident unemployment rate, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister announced on May 23rd that another $33 billion SGD ($23.2 USD) will be allocated to business and workers in order to support the country’s economy. This stimulus, known as the “Fortitude Budget”, contains $2.9 billion SGD for job loss prevention and includes job support enhancements that will help to retain workers by co-paying their salaries. For those looking for Singapore company formation, this might be the apt time to act.
Additional Budgets have been introduced
Furthermore, the stimulus provides the $3.8 billion SGD that will help with controlling the Coronavirus. In addition to this, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who is also Singapore’s finance minister, was instrumental in introducing:
- the Unity Budget in February ($6.4 billion SGD)
- the Resilience Budget in March ($48 billion SGD)
- the Solidarity Budget in the early part of April ($5.1 billion SGD)
Furthermore, the government added another $3.8 billion SGD to the Solidarity Budget later that same month. Along with these budgets, the government has allocated nearly $100 billion SGD (roughly 20% of Singapore’s GDP) to help overcome the damage the pandemic has done to the country’s economy. They extend their assistance for those investors looking for Singapore company incorporation.
Deputy PM, Heng gave assurance that the government will protect the interests of the workers and will do its best to preserve jobs. The foreign worker tax waiver has been extended for 2 months for those businesses that have not been allowed to resume activities on site. They are introducing a Bill to mandate the landlords to give mandatory rental waiver to SME tenants as there has been a drop in the revenue of these companies in the last few months. To set the trend, the government is giving 2 months waiver on rent for commercial tenants and 30 days waiver for agricultural, office and industrial tenants.
Economic Impact
Heng went on to assure the government that they will try to preserve jobs and protect every employee throughout this crisis. Additionally, the government will extend the foreign worker levy waiver and rebate up to 2 months for businesses that have had to shut down their operations. This includes firms in the building, marine and offshore, and process industry sectors.
