Budget 2008 highlights

February 25, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Current Affairs 

  • Growth Dividends: $865 million worth of “Growth Dividends” will be given to adult Singaporeans, averaging $100 to $600 per person. NSmen and NSFs will also receive an extra $100 each.
  • Estate Duty: Estate duty is abolished.
  • Personal Income Taxes: No changes in personal income tax rates this year, but an income tax rebate of 20 percent, to be capped at $2,000, will be given to all resident taxpayers for year of assessment 2008.
  • Medisave Top-Ups: Medisave accounts of all those aged 51 and above will be topped up by up to $450. Those between 51 and 60 will get $150. Those aged 61 to 70 will get $250, $350 goes to people aged 71 to 75, and the full $450 for those over 76.
  • Public Assistance: Public assistance (PA) for single-person households is set to go up from $290 to $330 a month.
  • CPF Life L-Bonuses: CPF members in the lower and middle-income group who are aged between 46 and 50 this year will get a bonus, called an L-bonus, of up to $4,000 in their CPF accounts when they enrol in the new national annuity plan, CPF Life. L-Bonuses will also go to members who are over 50 this year if they opt in. To get the L-Bonus, they must earn no more than $54,000 a year and live in property with an annual value of $11,000 or less, which includes all HDB flats.

    • Education

  • Spending on universities is increased by 25%, or $500 million, a year. The number of subsidised university places will be boosted to 30 per cent of each cohort by 2015, up from the current 25 per cent. Students in the lowest 20 per cent of households who enter local universities will receive $1,600 yearly under the CDC/CCC Bursary Scheme, up from $1,000 while those in polytechnics will receive $1,200, up from $1,000. Under the MOE Bursary Scheme, students in the lowest 50 per cent of households will also see their grant increase from $800 to $1,200 annually. This scheme, now in place at universities will be extended to polytechnics, where eligible students will get a fixed grant of $800 yearly.
  • $300 million will be spent to top up their Post-Secondary Education (PSE) accounts, which it introduced last year to defray the costs of tertiaryeducation. Each student aged seven to 20 was originally scheduled to get up to $400 this year, and a second similar payout next year. Students will receive a bonus payment of between $150 and $600 on top of the original amounts. Most students, including all who live in HDB flats, will get a bonus of $300 if they are in primary school and $600 if they are in secondary school or older. The rest live in homes that have an annual value of more than $11,000, which includes most landed properties. They will get $150 if they are in primary school and $300 if they are in secondary school or older. Adding up all the payments, secondary school students will have up to $1,400 in their accounts by March next year to use for their post-secondary education. Primary school pupils are to get a basic payment of $100 or $200 each year for this year and next, while students in secondary school or older will get $200or $400, depending on the value of their home.

    • Miscellaneous

  • An additional $800 million will also be injected into the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund.
  • $400 million will be injected into the Eldercare Fund, bringing it to $1.5 billion. Eldercare is to help seniors who need to live in nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. Medifund, which helps the needy pay hospital bills, will get a $200 million top-up, bringing it to $1.6 billion. The government will also pump $200 million into the ComCare endowment fund this year to help fund programmes that can enable needy families to get jobs and look after their childrens’ needs.
  • The transport ministry’s development expenditure is projected to increase 45 per cent to $2.35 billion in 2008, as it boosts spending on rail projects.
  • $10.8 billion, will be directed to defence – an increase of 7.2 per cent over last year’s budget.
  • Overall research spending will be increased to S$7.5 billion by 2010, or three percent of the GDP, with one-third of this being publicly funded research.
  • Tax deductions allowed for R&D done in Singapore will be increased from 100 percent to 150 percent.
  • About $1b worth of less urgent public construction projects are deferred to ease strain on raw material demand. This is on top of $2b worth of projectsalready deferred.
  • Licensed insurance and reinsurance brokers will be taxed at a concessionary rate of 10 per cent on the income they derive from offering insurance broking and advisory services to offshore clients.
  • All alcoholic beverages will be taxed on the basis of their alcoholic content.
  • The overall budget balance for financial year 2008 will amount to a deficit of S$0.8 billion.

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2 Comments on Budget 2008 highlights

  1. Daily SG: 26 Feb 2008 « The Singapore Daily on Tue, 26th Feb 2008 11:02 am

    2. [...] Budget 2008 – Balderdash: …interesting nuggets about tax relief – Sgpolitics.net: Budget 2008 highlights [...]

  2. SGDaily Roundup: Week 9 « The Singapore Daily on Sat, 1st Mar 2008 1:03 am

    3. [...] of an affluent island.. – Balderdash: …interesting nuggets about tax relief – Sgpolitics.net: Budget 2008 highlights – The Daily Backtrack: The Auntie’s View on the Budget – Mr Wang Says So: The Government [...]

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