Some 2.5 million adult Singaporeans will receive an additional cash payout of up to $200 in December.
And every Singaporean household will receive $200 in Community Development Council (CDC) vouchers in 2024 to help cope with the rising cost of living.
These support measures, among others, are part of a $1.1 billion Cost-of-Living Support Package to provide relief for all Singaporean households, with more support for lower- to middle-income families. They build on the measures announced at Budget 2023.
The measures also include a $0.8 billion enhancement to the Assurance Package (AP) that will bring the APit to over $10 billion.
Announcing the support package on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong acknowledged that many Singaporeans are anxious about the overall economic outlook, price increases and the impact on their cost of living.
“The Government is committed to supporting Singaporeans through these uncertain times,” said Mr Wong, adding that the Government will not be dipping into the past reserves for this package.
He noted that the measures will cushion the impact of higher utility bills arising from the increases in water price, and also the upcoming increase in carbon tax.
The additional payment of up to $200 cash for 2.5 million eligible adult Singaporeans will be disbursed in December 2023, together with the existing Assurance Package cash component.
In all, eligible adult Singaporeans will receive up to $800 cash in December 2023.
Every Singaporean household will get an additional $200 in CDC vouchers in 2024, bringing the total amount of CDC vouchers for each Singaporean household to $500 in 2024.
The $200 worth of CDC vouchers will be spilt in half, with $100 of the vouchers allocated for spending at participating heartland merchants and hawkers, and the other $100 for spending at participating supermarkets.
The 2024 CDC vouchers should be claimed digitally at go.gov.sg/cdcv from Jan 3, 2024.
Some 950,000 Singaporean HDB households will get a one-off half-month of Service and conservancy charges (S&CC) rebate disbursed in January 2024, together with the regular S&CC rebates.
The 950,000 Singaporean HDB households will also receive an additional $20 per quarter of U-Save rebates from January 2024 to December 2025, or a total of $80 per year for two years.
There will be additional subsidies of about $300 million in 2024 to cover the deferred fare adjustment quantum of 15.6 per cent that will be carried over to future fare review exercises.
On Thursday, Mr Wong said that while the GST increase was already planned for, there were certain things that were not planned, such as some of the recent price increases and “also the more uncertain economic outlook, possible disruptions to energy and food supplies... and the uncertainties in the global environment”.
The Straits Times
