Payments under Jobs Support Scheme Made in 2020 and 2021 to Profitable Companies

Mr Leong Mun Wai asked the Minister for Finance for 2020 and 2021, how much of payments under the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) are made to companies that are profitable.

The objective of JSS was to provide urgently needed cashflow to firms across the board at the most challenging period of the COVID-19 crisis, in particular, during the circuit breaker period. The JSS enabled firms to retain their local employees and to subsequently bounce back from the crisis as local and global demand recovered. Our timely fiscal support, through JSS and other relief schemes, conclusively helped to avert a deeper crisis for Singapore, and, in particular, helped firms survive the crisis.

This is why we had designed the JSS such that the eligibility for the scheme is not determined by profitability but by whether the firm employs local workers (evidenced by payment of CPF contributions). In that context, we should not focus on the profitability of the JSS recipients, but on the outcomes achieved through this scheme, which is aimed at preserving local employment.