MP Says Each S’porean Agak Agak Got $23,225 of COVID-19 Relief from the Gov Though It’s Not Direct Cash

Most of us probably slept through the Parliament debates for the S$33 billion Fortitude Budget for COVID-19 measures.

But something mentioned by MacPherson MP Tin Pei Ling has surely made your eyes and ears open big big to make sure you weren’t hearing or seeing anything wrong.

That Singapore is among the top countries in terms of relief given per citizen or permanent resident, at $23,225 per capita.

Then it hit you. Wait a minute. I have only received S$600 so far. Wheres the rest of my S$22K?

Where’s this number pulled from? Did MP Tin accidentally add a 0? Was there money we didn’t know of and didn’t receive?

It’s neither of those, and the answer is surprisingly simple.

How S$23,225 Per Capita Was Derived

So, up till now, there were three support packages:

• Unity Budget on 18 February that cost the Government $6.4 billion
• Resilience Budget on 26 March that cost the Government $48.4 billion
• Solidarity Budget on 6 April that cost the Government $5.1 billion

And one more S$3.8 billion when Circuit Breaker was extended.

That’s a total of S$63.7 billion.

Now, we have a S$33 billion budget announced. So that makes the total S$96.7 billion.

And then, according to the latest population figures from Singstats, the number of Singaporeans + PR residents is 4,026,200.

So, if you divide S$96.7 billion by 4,026,200, you get about S$24K budget per Singaporean/PR. Give or take some rounding error, that’s approximately the S$23,225 MP Tin was talking about.

So what really happened here was that MP Tin misspoke, since that’s the budget and not the relief.

Or, at least, that’s what we think lah.

Though it has to be added that unlike the Straits Times live update, MP Tin Pei Ling called it the “COVID19 budgetary support per capita” on her Facebook post.

Difference Between Relief and Budget

A relief, if you just search a dictionary, is like financial aid. AKA putting money directly into people’s hands.

So for example, SIRS (Self-Employed Person Income Relief), which has relief in the name, is a relief.

Meanwhile, a government budget is just the proposed spending for the year.

So “S$33 billion Fortitude Budget” is the gahmen saying “we plan to spend S$33 billion to help workers and businesses because of COVID-19”.

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But, Where The Heck Is The S$22K?

So now you’re probably like: But Goody Feed, even so, I should feel more than S$600 richer. Why am I still poor?

I can’t tell you why you are poor, cause I’m probably poorer than you, my friend. But I can tell you why you are not more than just S$600 richer.

First, stop buying so much bubble tea.

Now let’s say you’re currently earning a salary. Oh, you also happen to be in an affected industry? And that firm is eligible for the Job Support Scheme? Some of the “S$23K per capita” went into your salary.

You’re a fresh grad? The money is in Skills Training Programmes and Traineeships.

Self-employed? SIRS.

Not to mention, there are also money going into businesses for things like digital resilience bonus to help firms upskill for the digital age, rental waivers… and if you’re so interested, go read the whole Budget 2020 yourself lah.

So now the question is: Wait, if the gahmen is spending S$23K per capita, and we don’t feel S$23K richer, then is the gahmen spending money correctly?

After all, the gahmen says it’s a rental waiver, but gives it to the landlord, then asks the landlord to give that to the tenant. Why not just give it to the tenant, and we don’t need to waste time to add one more law to say “waiver must be given to tenant“?

Good question. I’m not an economist so I don’t know either.

But there’s another question on many MPs’ mind when talking about proposed spending.

Wait, Ah Gong Got Enough Money Or Not?

Everybody knows that Ah Gong is rich, but nobody knows exactly how rich. This unknown number of savings was accumulated over decades.

It’s cool that Ah Gong can help his children, but our uncles and aunties AKA MPs are worried if Ah Gong is really that rich.

For one, MP Tin mentioned that the pandemic will last many more months, and the economy remains uncertain.

“Therefore, I wonder how many more packages we will need and how much more might we have to dip into our reserves for.”

“Let me state that I believe it is necessary for us to draw on our reserves to help Singapore and Singaporeans get through this storm. But I am concerned if we have enough to leave behind for our future generations.”

Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) also noted that the fiscal deficit for this financial year is expected to hit $74.3 billion… which is seven times the size of deficit estimated in the Unity Budget.

“The Government can keep on tapping and running down its fiscal reserves… but runs the risk of depleting its war chest,” he said.