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The Singapore government has extended more wage support, and rental relief and cash payouts to small- and medium-sized enterprises and eligible non-profit organisations. All support measures will cost a total of $800 million.
Finance Minister Lawrence Wong shared that the wage subsidies provided under the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) have been extended to more sectors and businesses affected by the tighter COVID-19 restrictions, reported Channel News Asia (CNA).
Wong, who also serves as co-chair of the COVID-19 multi-ministry task force, noted that the tighter measures helped curb the hike in community cases.
“Our assessment is that the measures are working and they are having an effect in controlling the spread of the virus,” he said as quoted by CNA.
On 16 May, the city-state entered Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) on the back of increasing COVID-19 community cases. The stricter measures will run until 13 June.
With this, group sizes for gatherings have been slashed to two persons, dining-in at F&B outlets banned, while working from home became the default during this period.
During the announcement of the measures on 14 May, the government also increased the Jobs Support subsidy offered to F&B businesses from 10 to 50% for salaries paid up to June this year.
The scheme sees the government subsidising the first $4,600 of gross monthly salaries paid by companies to local employees.
The government has now extended the 50% wage support to sectors and businesses, which saw many, if not all, of their operations suspended during the heightened alert period.
This includes fitness studios, gyms, arts education centres and performing arts organisations. The Jobs Support subsidy replaces the operating grant unveiled earlier by authorities for gyms and fitness studios.
Sectors not required to suspend operations but are significantly impacted by the tougher measures will receive 30% wage subsidies from 16 May to 13 June.
These include businesses within the retail sector, museums, affected personal care services, historical sites, art galleries, indoor playgrounds, cinemas and other family entertainment centres. Retailers such as convenience stores, supermarkets and online retailers are not eligible for the wage subsidies.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) revealed that the payout—which is based on wages paid from April to June 2021—will be disbursed in September.
Firms that retrenched local employees or placed them on mandatory no-pay leave are not eligible for the Job Support payouts for such employees.
“I would encourage businesses to make full use of the enhanced JSS to retain and pay their workers during this period, and to use the lull period to invest in workers through training and upskilling programmes,” said Wong.
Meanwhile, rental relief is also offered to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as eligible non-profit organisations (with revenue of $100 million or less) who are tenants on certain commercial properties.
These include businesses operating at properties such as serviced apartments, hotels, MICE venues, tourist attractions, ferry terminals or cruise centres, schools, cinemas and health or medical buildings.
Qualifying tenants at government-owned commercial properties will receive one month of rental relief. Tenants are mandated to pass down the rental relief to qualifying sub-tenants, if any.
MOF noted that some privately owned commercial properties had provided rental rebates or waivers to their tenants. Such tenants will receive additional support from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore in the form of a half-month rental relief cash payout. To be disbursed from mid-August, the cash payout is part of a new Rental Support Scheme.
The cash payout is also offered to those operating a non-profit organisation or SME business on their own property.
CNA noted that coffee shop stallholders and hawkers who are tenants of government agencies already received a one-month rental waiver. Moreover, fees for table-cleaning and centralised dishwashing services have been waived for about 6,000 cooked food stallholders within hawker centres managed by the National Environment Agency or appointed operators.
Authorities urged commercial landlords to extend support to their F&B tenants during this period.
CNA said the package of support measures, which cost the government $800 million, will be funded via reallocation from development expenditure.
Wong said a Supplementary Supply Bill would be tabled at the next Parliament sitting in July for the reallocation.
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Cheryl Chiew, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this story, email: cheryl@propertyguru.com.sg
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