A total of $13.8 billion was allocated for Covid-19 response operations by the Government in last year's Budget - one of three major areas of spending to protect lives and livelihoods in the pandemic, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat yesterday.
In a written reply to Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast GRC), Mr Heng said another $73.5 billion was set aside to give support for workers and businesses, while $10 billion went towards social and household support.
Ms Foo had asked how the $100 billion that had been set aside over five budgets to deal with the pandemic was spent, as well as the sum of any projected unused amounts.
Mr Heng, who is also Finance Minister, said the first priority was to protect lives. The $13.8 billion committed for public health efforts included expanding contact tracing capabilities to contain the virus and building the capacity to carry out over 50,000 tests a day.
Health supplies were secured to ensure front-line workers were protected, and additional healthcare capacity stood up. Early access to vaccines was also secured, he said.
"These efforts have helped Singapore to avoid the worst of Covid-19 so far. While we encountered serious challenges, we have kept our death rate low and brought community transmission to a manageable level," he said.
Giving a breakdown of the $13.8 billion in a separate written reply to Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai, Mr Heng said $10 billion was given to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Trade and Industry for medical and emergency operations and supplies.
Another $2.9 billion was given to the Ministry of National Development for setting up and operating quarantine and stay-home notice facilities, as well as to build new dormitories for foreign workers.
A further $0.9 billion was given to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to manage the Covid-19 outbreak in dormitories.
The second major area of spending was devoted to protecting livelihoods, with $73.5 billion going to efforts such as the Jobs Support Scheme, for which $26.9 billion was allocated.
Tax and rental reliefs were also given to businesses, said Mr Heng, as well as additional support for the sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic, such as the aviation and tourism sectors.
SingapoRediscover vouchers, issued to Singaporeans to support local tourism businesses, are also included in this sum.
Beyond emergency relief, new jobs, skills and traineeship opportunities were created through the Jobs Growth Incentive and the SG United Jobs and Skills programme, which had achieved about 75,000 placements as at end-December last year, he noted.
Businesses are also being helped to transform and adapt to a post-Covid-19 world, so that viable jobs continue to be available, he said.
"We are starting to see some signs of stabilisation in the labour market. The Government will continue to monitor this closely and refine our policies," Mr Heng said.
As for the $10 billion set aside for social and household support, this included schemes such as the Temporary Relief Fund, Covid-19 Support Grant and Self-Employed Persons Income Relief Scheme, which have together helped over 500,000 people.
The minister said that while about $100 billion was committed, how much is used depends on the take-up of the schemes.
In some areas, such as the SG United Jobs and Skills programme, take-up has been stronger than expected, but less support was needed in other areas where market conditions turned out better than expected, he said.
"Overall, we expect that we will not fully utilise the $100 billion committed in FY2020," he said, but added that the Covid-19 fight is not yet over. "The pandemic rages on in other parts of the world. More infectious variants of the virus threaten to undo our good work."
"We will need to continue dedicating resources towards the fight against Covid-19 in FY2021," he said, adding that the revised estimates for the past fiscal year and detailed plans for the next will be presented in Budget 2021, scheduled for Feb 16.
