Singapore Budget 2009

With great anticipation, the budget was finally announced at 330pm today. The Singapore government is really looking hard at shoring up its economy as the policy announced are really drastic and quite out of my expectation. The biggest gain would probably be the companies in Singapore, though Singaporean will also manage to get some sweet deals. Here are some of the highlights:

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For households:

1. 1 additional payout for the GST offset package is announced to be paid on 1st March 2009, on top of one that are scheduled to be given out in July 2009.
2. 1 additional month of Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) Rebates
3. A personal income tax rebate of 20% (capped at $2,000)
4. A 40% property tax rebate

For more information, you can click here.

For the companies:

1. Employers will receive a 12% cash grant on the first $2,500 of each month’s wages for each employee on their CPF payroll.
2. The Government will be expanding recruitment. In total, 18,000 public sector jobs (including Government-supported jobs outside of the Government in areas such as childcare, tertiary education, and restructured hospitals) are expected to be available over the next two years. This includes about:
   7,500 jobs in teaching positions and teaching support staff;
   4,500 health care professionals and hospital administrative staff;
   1,400 jobs for the Home Team;
   2,000 jobs for MINDEF (including the SAF); and
   2,600 for the rest of the Public Service.

For more information, you can click here.

As for me, all these doesn't really concern me except that I will be receiving hong baos from the government in March and July!!! Hurray!! I hope that with this stimulation, Singapore will walk out of this crisis fast, as I will be graduating soon and jobs are not that easy to find...