Tourism and F&B sector welcome added help amidst the outbreak

By TIN Media | Singapore News Published 3 years ago on 29 March 2020
Read News

SINGAPORE:

The hard-hit tourism, and food and beverage sectors are receiving targeted help in the form of larger wage subsidies and tax relief, as part of the second wave of measures aimed at helping businesses and workers cope with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

The sectors were among those receiving a larger chunk of the support provided for in the bumper $48 billion Resilience Budget unveiled yesterday.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat told Parliament that $90 million will be set aside to help the tourism industry "rebound strongly, when the time is right", though he did not reveal details on how the funds would be used.

Wage subsidies will form the largest piece of the support for the affected sectors, with local workers in the tourism and F&B having a bigger percentage of their salaries paid for by the Government under the enhanced Jobs Support Scheme. Instead of the earlier announced 8 per cent, the scheme will now fund half of the first $4,600 of wages for local workers in the food services sector and 75 per cent of the first $4,600 for those in the tourism and aviation sectors. It will also be extended to cover nine months instead of three.

Mr Heng also announced that commercial properties that have been more severely affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, including hotels, tourist attractions, shops, and eateries, will not have to pay any property tax this year. A number of tourism grants, such as the Kickstart Fund and Business Improvement Fund, have also been beefed up with more support for qualifying costs.

Other measures in the supplementary budget include enhanced financing and training programmes, and a relief scheme that will provide eligible self-employed workers with $1,000 a month for nine months.


    TAGS / KEYWORDS:

Email TIN

TIN Media

TIN.media - Travel Industry Network is Malaysia's home grown B2B Travel Industry Media with the most influential B2B online resources including news, research, events, and marketing services and more.