SINGAPORE News — About 2.5 million individuals will receive up to S$500 in cash as a part of a new S$1.5 billion support package to assist Singaporeans cope with persistent inflation.
In a press release on Friday (Oct 14), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said the payouts are going to be disbursed in December this year to individuals who have an assessable income for the Year of Assessment 2022 of S$100,000 and below.
Individuals who have an assessable income of S$22,000 and below will receive $500; those with an assessable income of quite S$22,000 to S$34,000 will receive S$400, while those that have an assessable income of more than S$34,000 to S$100,000 will receive $300.
To be eligible for the payout, individuals should also not own quite one property.
The cash are going to be disbursed along with the goods and services (GST) cash payouts announced at the Budget earlier this year.
Other measures within the latest support package include:
A S$100 Community Development Council voucher for each Singaporean household in January next year, on top of the S$200 vouchers issued during this year’s budget
Additional transport subsidy of about S$200 million next year to hide the impending 10.6 per cent hike publicly transport fares, which the general public Transport Council said on Wednesday would be rolled over to future fare reviews
600,000 conveyance vouchers worth S$30 for each resident household with a monthly household income per person of not more than S$1,600
The raising of the income eligibility thresholds and enhancements to bursary quanta for full-time students at the Institute of Technical Education for the 2023 school year
MOF said that it had been rolling out package to provide relief from the higher cost of living for all Singaporeans, with more support given to the lower and middle-income groups.
The new support package, together with the earlier rounds of support measures rolled out this year, will fully cover the rise in cost of living for lower-income households on average, and quite half of the increase in cost of living for middle-income households on average this year, said the ministry.
It said that since introducing measures within the Budget earlier this year to help cushion the impact of rising prices for Singaporeans, inflation has picked up further globally.
While supply chain frictions, it said, have eased slightly, the continued conflict in Ukraine continues to put pressure on commodity prices.
“As alittle , open economy, Singapore is especially susceptible to imported price pressures through channels such as food an energy. Domestically, a decent labour market continues to support strong wage growth,” said MOF.
It added that Singapore must be prepared for inflation to remain elevated for some time.
MOF said there’ll be no draw on past reserves for this support package and that it will be funded from the “better-than-expected” fiscal out-turn in the first half of this year.