SINGAPORE (Mar 26): The Singapore government is dedicating some additional $48 billion under its resilient budget to help Singaporeans tide through the negative effects from the Covid-19 outbreak.
One of the thrust of the resilience budget is to help businesses in Singapore overcome some of the immediate challenges.
The government will support local businesses with the three C’s – cashflow, cost and credit.
To ease cashflow for businesses, deputy prime minister Heng Swee Keat announced an automatic deferment of income tax payments for companies and self-employed workers for three months.
For companies, the deferment will be from April to June, the deferment for self-employed will be until July, and payments only start in August. Employees may approach IRAS if they need help with their tax payments.
Furthermore, Heng announced that certain commercial properties that rely on the tourism industry, such as hotels, will enjoy no property tax. All other non-residential properties will get a new 30% rebate for the year 2020. He urges landlords to pass the savings to tenants.
Stallholders at hawker centres manged by NEA or NEA-appointed operators will also receive three months of rental waiver, compared to just one month previously.
Meanwhile, commercial tenants will get two months of rent waived, while all non-residential tenants will get half a month of rental waiver.
Additionally, Heng also announced that all government fees and charges will be waived.
To help businesses with credit, the Singapore government has enhanced the Enterprise Financing Scheme. The maximum loan quantum has been raised to $10 million and government's risk-share has increased to 80%.
Under the Loan Insurance Scheme, subsidies to businesses for loan insurance premiums has been raised from 50% to 80%.
The Temporary Bridging Loan Programme has also been expanded from only the tourism sector to all enterprises, while maximum support has been raised to $5 million, from $1 million.
As for the SME Working Capital Loan, this scheme has been further enhanced to support loans of up to $1 million, from $600,000.
And lastly, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is working with local banks and insurers to come up with solutions to best help businesses and people facing cash flow challenges with loan obligations and insurance premium payments. More on this will be updated later.
Furthermore, the government is also looking into how it can provide relief from legal obligations that have arisen due to the Covid-19 situation, such as people who have paid deposits for events that now cannot go on. The Law Minister will share more details next week.
