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Highlights of Singapore’s Resilience Budget 2020

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Pui Ming Soh
27 Mar 2020 PDF
Subject Tax alert
Categories Tax update
Jurisdictions Singapore

The Resilience Budget, with measures worth S$48b, has been introduced to support Singaporeans and businesses through the COVID-19 outbreak.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Mr. Heng Swee Keat, delivered a Ministerial Statement on 26 March 2020 in Parliament on the Government’s additional support measures for workers, businesses and households in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the delivery of Budget 2020 (Unity Budget) in Parliament on 18 February 2020, COVID-19 has escalated into a global pandemic. As an open economy and Asian hub, Singapore is on the front-line. Her economy contracted by 2.2% on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of 2020, reversing the 1.0% growth in the preceding quarter. The Ministry of Trade and Industry has further downgraded the year 2020’s growth forecast to between -1.0% and -4.0%.

To meet these challenging times, a supplementary budget (Resilience Budget) with measures worth S$48b has been introduced to support Singaporeans and businesses. This is in addition to the S$6.4b committed earlier in the Unity Budget. Altogether, S$55b, amounting to 11.0% of Singapore’s GDP, will be dedicated to enable Singapore to weather this unprecedented situation.

The Resilience Budget focuses on three key areas:

  • Helping enterprises to overcome immediate challenges
  • Saving jobs, supporting workers and protecting livelihoods
  • Strengthening economic and social resilience to emerge intact and stronger

This news alert summarises the key announcements in the supplementary budget that are most relevant to our clients.

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