Highlights of Singapore Budget 2021
On 16 February 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat announced that as Singapore’s economy continues to reopen, Budget 2021 will shift “from containment to restructuring”.
The theme of Budget 2021 is Emerging Stronger Together. It combines measures to help families, workers and businesses weather the COVID-19 crisis in the immediate term, with measures to accelerate structural adaptations for the long term.
The highlights of the Budget are as follows:
- A new S$900 million Household Support Package that includes:
- A one-off GST Voucher special payment of S$200 in cash, and a special GST Voucher U-Save payment amounting to an additional 50 per cent rebate, or between S$120 and S$200 for lower- and middle-income households;
- An additional top-up of S$200 for each Singaporean child under 21 through his or her relevant education account for families with children;
- For all households: S$100 worth of Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers, to be used at participating heartland shops and hawker centres for all households;
- An extension of the service and conservancy charges rebate. The rebate will offset between one-and-a-half and three-and-a-half months of the charges, depending on their HDB flat type, for families living in Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats.
2. Extension of Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) for hard-hit sectors by the pandemic:
- Extension of wage support for aviation, aerospace and tourism sectors by six months, from April until September. Support will reduce from 30 per cent to 10 per cent in the last three months. Government will put in S$870 million towards the aviation sector.
- Extension for retail, arts and culture, food services and built environment sectors until June. Other sectors that are recovering will continue to receive support until March.
3. Extension of the Temporary Bridging Loan Programme and Enhanced Enterprise Financing Scheme.
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4. Government will put S$870 million towards the aviation sector.
- It includes a 10 per cent landing charge rebate for all scheduled passenger flights landing in Singapore for airlines, and a 50 per cent rebate on rental paid for ground handling companies’ lounges and offices within Changi Airport and Seletar Airport terminal buildings.
5. A S$5.4 billion injection to the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package to support the hiring of 200,000 locals and provide up to 35,000 training opportunities in 2021; with S$5.2 billion going towards extending the Jobs Growth Incentive that provides wage support for new local hires.
6. Salary raise for nurses and other healthcare workers, such as support care staff, applicable to workers across public healthcare institutions, publicly-funded community hospitals and long-term care service providers.
7. Increased target of 60,000 charging points for electric vehicles (EV), and S$30 million set aside for EV-related initiatives over the next five years.
8. An increase in petrol duty rates by up to S$0.15 per litre for premium petrol with immediate effect.
9. A one year 15 per cent road tax rebate for all taxis and private hire cars using petrol.
10. A new S$60 million Agri-Food Cluster Transformation Fund to support technology adoption in the food sector and improve Singapore’s food resilience.
11. Issuance of up to S$19 billion worth of Government green bonds on select public infrastructure projects.
12. GST hike from 7 to 9 per cent will take place sometime between 2022 and 2025.
13. GST to be imposed on imported low-value goods with effect from 1 January 2023.
Click here to read DPM Heng’s full budget speech.