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COVID-19 Solidarity Budget: Bill to ensure landlords pass on property tax rebates to tenants

Heng said that the rebates – which were announced last month as part of the $48 billion Resilience Budget – would work out to about one month of rent for most properties. (PHOTO: Getty Images)
Heng said that the rebates – which were announced last month as part of the $48 billion Resilience Budget – would work out to about one month of rent for most properties. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — A Bill will be introduced on Tuesday (7 April) to ensure that property owners pass on the 100 per cent Property Tax Rebate for non-residential properties to their tenants, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat in Parliament on Monday.

Heng said that the rebates – which were announced last month as part of the $48 billion Resilience Budget – would work out to about one month of rent for most properties. In terms of helping to support tenants, he added that the government would lead by example in these efforts.

“I will increase the rental waiver for industrial, office and agricultural tenants of Government agencies to 1 month, up from the 0.5 month’s rental waiver I announced at the Resilience Budget,” said Heng during his speech to unveil a third supplementary budget to help workers and employers in Singapore amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Stallholders in hawker centres managed by (National Environment Agency) or NEA-appointed operators will continue to enjoy three months of rental waivers, while commercial tenants will continue to receive two months of rental waivers,” he added.

Dubbed the Solidarity Budget, the latest monetary injection will see $5.1 billion being used to help the Singapore economy through its one-month circuit breaker period. From 7 April to 4 May, most businesses except for those providing essential services will be closed, while schools and institutes of higher-learning will switch to full home-based learning.

Together with the $48 billion Resilience Budget announced on 26 March and $6.4 billion Unity Budget unveiled on 18 February, Singapore will be spending a total of $59.9 billion – or about 12 per cent of its gross domestic produce (GDP) – to alleviate the impact of COVID-19.

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