To cushion the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs, a special S$4 billion Stabilization and Support Package (as part of the Unity Budget) has been introduced to help workers to remain employed and aid companies with cash flow. As the global economy and COVID-19 outbreak continue to worsen, Singapore Government has launched a second stimulus package (known as the Resilience Budget). The Resilience Budget, worth a tremendous amount of S$48.4 billion, aims to support households, help workers stay employed and provide support for enterprises and businesses to rebound stronger when the timing is right.
Government Grants for food & beverage (f&b) businesses:
Productivity Solution Grant
Key Eligibility includes:
- Registered and operating in Singapore
- Purchase/lease/subscription of IT solutions or equipment must be used in Singapore
- Have a minimum of 30% local shareholding (for selected solutions only)
E-invoicing Registration Grant
- Register your company now on the E-invoicing Network and Receive $200. (One-time payment per UEN)
Food Delivery Booster Package
- Funding of five (05) percentage points of commission cost charged
- Capability development pack (worth S$1,500) at a fee of S$100.
- Funding of 20% of delivery cost through third party logistics partners
- Up to 90% funding through the Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) to develop a 1. Virtual Brand and/or 2. Online to Offline (O2O) Strategy.
Funding for Cooked Food Stallholders on Food Delivery Services
- A one-time funding of S$500 per cooked food stallholder
The one-time funding will be given to cooked food stallholders operating at Singapore's hawker center, who engages food delivery platforms or third-party logistics partners to deliver their food between 7 April and 31 May. The stallholder must be operating in hawker centres managed by NEA or NEA-appointed operators.
This funding can be applied through National Environment Agency (NEA).
Support for training and upgrading of employees:
Skillsfuture Enterprise Credit (SFEC)
- Employers who have contributed at least S$750 Skills Development Levy, employed at least three Singapore Citizens (SCs) or Permanent Residents (PRs), have not been qualified at any of the earlier periods and are eligible for the grant.
Qualifying Periods:
- 1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020
- 1 July 2019 – 30 June 2020
- 1 October 2019 – 30 September 2020
- 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2020
Eligible employers will receive a one-off S$10,000 credit to cover up to 90% of out-of-pocket expenses on qualifying costs for supportable initiative. To encourage employers to train and upskill their workers, S$3,000 of the credit should be used for workforce transformation programmes and employers can only use up to S$7,000 for enterprise transformation.
Digital Marketing Programme
- 90% of training course to be funded by Enterprise Singapore (ESG)
- Additional S$500 campaign bonus to be given after a successful campaign launched after the programme
- Each f&b business can send up to two (02) employees for this programme
To help f&b businesses who are suffering due to the insufficient footfall caused by COVID-19, a digital marketing training programme has been created to help f&b scale up their digital platform.
The course will cover content marketing and social media paid advertisement workshop, with one-on-one coaching with the trainer after each course. At the end of the programme, companies can choose to launch a Facebook or instagram ad and/or google Ad to qualify for the additional campaign bonus.
The RAFT (Recover, Acquire & ProFit) Programme by Click Academy Asia is supported by ESG (90% subsidy). Eligible f&b operators must have a UEN and an existing outlet with SFA license to qualify. More information can be found on https://events.clickacademyasia.com/clickacademy-asia-raft-programme/
During sign up, remember to quote "KitchenSq" in your application form!
(Update as of 28 May 2020) Digital Resilience Bonus (as announced during Fortitude Budget)
Food Services and Retail enterprises that adopt pre-defined categories of digital solutions can receive now bonus payouts of up to $10,000 to offset the cost of adoption.
More details will be announced on a later date. For the full write up by Singapore Budget, click here.