SINGAPORE: Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said on Monday (April 4) that the government will propose budget measures to help Singaporean households amid rising global prices.
In a ministerial statement to parliament on inflation and business costs, Mr Wong said he would move forward with budget measures where possible because of these pressures.
Mr Wong said the S$100 CDC voucher for each Singaporean household will be distributed in the middle of next month. This is on top of the S$100 paid in December last year and will help people cover their day-to-day expenses.
Mr Wong announced that the first Service and Administration Charge (S&CC) rebate and U-Save rebate will also be issued to eligible households this month.
The rest of the U-Save and S&CC rebates will be paid out over the next few quarters – July and October this year, and January next year.
Mr Wong pointed out that there are other forms of family help, including top-up of each Singaporean child’s Child Development Account, Education Savings Account or Post-Secondary Education Account, as well as access to Medisave top-ups in the form of cash and GST vouchers.
He said the government will continue to ensure that these payments are released to Singaporeans in a “timely manner”.
Help will also be extended to businesses, Mr Wong said.
He announced that the Small Business Recovery Grant will be released early, and most eligible businesses will be able to receive it by June.
The grant provides up to S$10,000 to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have been most affected by COVID-19 restrictions in the past year.
Help for low-income families
Mr Huang said there would also be more help for low-income households who were more affected during the price hike.
He said the Social Services Office (SSO) would support all new ComCare Short-Term Assistance (SMTA) clients who apply between this month and September this year for at least six months.
“Families already enrolled in the ComCare SMTA can also extend their assistance for at least three months if they need further assistance,” added Mr Wong.
“SSO will continue to be flexible in providing financial assistance and support to those in need. This includes providing additional cash assistance to ComCare recipients during this period to address inflationary pressures.”
Mr Huang said the government would also do more to help low-income groups pay for public transport.
Previously, it issued a public transit voucher (PTV) to every household that received a PTV at the previous event, including more than 30,000 ComCare beneficiaries.
Mr Wong said the government would make another round of payments for these ComCare recipients this month.
That means they will get S$60 in PTV, which will “roughly cover” the extra fare a family of four paid this year due to a fare hike last December.
In addition to these ComCare recipients, PTV is also available to all households with monthly income of up to S$1,600 per member. Applications for these vouchers are open from now until October 31.
Eligible families who have received the first coupon can also apply again if they need a second coupon.
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Mr Wong pointed out that the price increases over the past few months were not unique to Singapore, but occurred globally.
Mr Huang said that while it was initially hoped in early 2022 that global inflationary pressures would ease during the year, global inflation is now likely to persist for longer due to the war in Ukraine.
“Now, before we have a chance to survive the pandemic, we face another economic challenge. After years of relative price stability, the recent spike in inflation has understandably alarmed many,” he added.
“But from the global context and our own experience, I hope we can better understand why prices are rising and what we can do to combat it together.”
Responding to a question from MP Lim Wei Kit (PAP-Sembawang) who asked what the “threshold” for more help would be in a high inflation situation, Mr Wong said he could not provide a specific “trigger point”
“How high inflation has to go before we see more help…I can’t give a specific trigger point. Right now, as I said, we monitor a range of indicators. Not just a headline for economic growth , inflation, unemployment, for that matter, and how it affects different groups, different income groups, different occupations,” he said.
“And then, for that matter, what’s the impact of the package of measures that we haven’t implemented yet? We need to see those measures implemented properly and impact the economy as well.”
“So there are all these different considerations. That’s why we can’t distill it so simply into one key parameter. But the assurance we continue to provide is that we’ll be monitoring that very closely. If things get worse…. ..with the situation inside and outside of Singapore, we will definitely be ready to do more.”
He added that Budget 2022 help was on the horizon and the government stood ready to do so if the situation “worsened and more support was needed”.
“There are dark clouds on the horizon. But as always, we will get through this together as one united people.”
