Government to bring forward Budget measures to help households amid global rise in prices: Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE: The Government will carry ahead Budget measures to assist Singapore households amid the worldwide rise in costs, mentioned Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong on Monday (Apr 4).

Delivering a ministerial assertion on inflation and enterprise prices in Parliament, Mr Wong mentioned he would, the place potential, carry ahead the implementation of Budget measures because of these pressures.

The S$100 CDC Vouchers for each Singaporean family will probably be disbursed by the center of subsequent month, mentioned Mr Wong. This is on high of the S$100 disbursed in December final yr, and can assist individuals with their each day bills. 

The first tranche of Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) rebates and U-Save rebates may even be disbursed to eligible households this month, Mr Wong introduced.

The remainder of the U-Save and S&CC rebates will probably be disbursed within the coming quarters – in July and October this yr, and in January subsequent yr.

Mr Wong famous that there are at the moment additionally different types of assist for households, together with top-ups to the Child Development Account, Edusave Account, or Post-Secondary Education Account of each Singaporean baby, in addition to the GST voucher when it comes to money and Medisave top-ups. 

The Government will proceed to make sure that these are disbursed to Singaporeans in a “timely manner”, he mentioned.

Help may even be prolonged to companies, mentioned Mr Wong. 

He introduced that the disbursement of the Small Business Recovery Grant will probably be introduced ahead, and most eligible companies will have the ability to obtain the grant by June.

The grant gives as much as S$10,000 for small- and medium- enterprises (SMEs) most affected by COVID-19 restrictions over the previous yr.

HELP FOR THE LOWER-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS

More assist may even be offered for lower-income households who will probably be extra impacted throughout this era of upper costs, mentioned Mr Wong.

The Social Service Offices (SSOs) will present a minimal period of six months’ assist for all new ComCare Short- to Medium-Term Assistance (SMTA) shoppers who apply between this month and September this yr, he mentioned.

“Households who are already on ComCare SMTA can also have their assistance extended for at least another three months if they require further assistance,” added Mr Wong.

“SSOs will continue to exercise flexibility to provide those in need with financial assistance and support. This includes providing ComCare recipients with more cash assistance during this period to cope with inflationary pressures.”

The Government may even do extra to assist lower-income teams with their public transport fares, mentioned Mr Wong.

Previously, it disbursed Public Transport Vouchers (PTVs) to each family that obtained a PTV within the final train, together with greater than 30,000 ComCare beneficiaries. 

The Government will make one other spherical of disbursements this month for these ComCare recipients, mentioned Mr Wong.

This implies that they may obtain S$60 of PTVs, which can “roughly cover” the extra fares paid by a household of 4 this yr arising from the fare improve final December. 

Besides these ComCare recipients, the PTVs are additionally out there to all households whose month-to-month earnings per member doesn’t exceed S$1,600. Applications for such vouchers are open from now till Oct 31.

Eligible households who had already obtained the primary voucher, and who want a second voucher may also apply once more. 

Mr Wong famous that the rise in costs over the previous few months is just not distinctive to Singapore, however is occurring worldwide.

While there have been preliminary hopes firstly of 2022 that world inflationary pressures would ease over the course of the yr, it’s now doubtless that world inflation will probably be greater for longer because of the struggle in Ukraine, mentioned Mr Wong.

“Now, before we’ve had the chance to see through the pandemic, we are faced with yet another economic challenge. After many years of relative price stability, the recent surge of higher inflation has understandably come as a shock to many,” he added.

“But when viewed against the global context and our own experience, I hope we can better understand the causes of higher prices and what we can do to manage this together.”

He added that assist from the Budget 2022 is coming, and that if the scenario “worsens and more support is needed”, the Government stands prepared to take action.

“There are dark clouds over the horizon. But we will get through this together, as we have always done, as one united people.”