SINGAPORE (Apr 6): Market watchers and business associations have given their unanimous thumbs up to the $5.1 billion Solidarity Budget unveiled by deputy prime minister Heng Swee Keat earlier on April 6, just hours before the month-long ‘circuit breaker’ hunkering down period takes effect.
Roland Ng, president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, acknowledges that it will be a “painful” and “disruptive” month ahead for businesses. “I urge companies to adjust and adapt, and comply with these circuit breaker measures, with a view that we hope these measures can be eased or removed after one month,” he says.
This second supplementary budget, announced less than a fortnight after the massive $48.4 billion “shock and awe” budget on March 26, was deemed necessary because of how rapidly the Covid-19 outbreak was evolving.
“Now is the time for everyone – businesses, workers and trade associations and chambers – to do everything we can to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Every effort counts,” says S S Teo chairman of the Singapore Business Federation.
“We need to work together with the Government to ride out this storm and overcome this crisis. The message is clear: Our companies need to preserve jobs to protect our workers and their livelihoods,” he adds.
Ho Meng Kit, CEO of SBF, describes this latest $5.1 billion package as one that offers immediate, direct and substantial help for businesses to survive this month-long period.
With the exception of companies deemed “essential services”, many others are to stay shut and their workers stay at home. A key feature of the $5.1 billion package is for the government to fund 75% of local workers’ pay for April, up to a cap $3,450.
Max Loh, Managing Partner, Singapore and Brunei, Ernst & Young LLP, calls this a swift, decisive and thoughtful response to the escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak and the institution of a workplace closure circuit breaker.
“It not only supports businesses, workers and individuals in addressing their financial challenges but also their socio-emotional wellbeing, which is vital to building our collective resilience and unity as a community and country,” he adds.
Low Hwee Chua, Regional Managing Partner for Tax & Legal, Deloitte Singapore and Southeast Asia, calls this job support scheme both “generous and simple to implement”, which when implemented, will help give businesses certainty, while saving a significant amount of manpower needed to administer.
“This is in contrast to some other countries where there are complicated rules for companies to qualify, including proving that there was a drop in revenue (in some countries, a drop of 50%),” he notes.
To fund this budget, an additional $4 billion is to be drawn from the reserves. “Singapore’s discipline and prudence in its fiscal practices in the past are now proving to be life-saving in the current volatile times,” says Soh Pui Ming, Singapore Head of Tax, Ernst & Young Solutions LLP.
“The scale and speed at which the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets were pushed through are unprecedented,” she adds.
