Global Trade Alert

On 25 February 2013, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, held the 2013 budget speech in the Singaporean parliament. Among the biggest changes was the introduction of the 3-year-long Transition Support Scheme, consisting of a 3.6 billion SGD (on that day, 1 USD equalled 0.8066 SGD) Wage Credit Scheme, a 450 million SGD Productivity and Innovation Credit Bonus and a Corporate Income Tax Rebate worth 1.3 billion SGD.

Corporate Income Tax Rebate
Shanmugaratnam also said in his budget speech: "besides higher manpower costs, businesses also face other cost pressures such as higher rentals. To help companies cope during this period of transition, I will provide a special Corporate Income Tax rebate from YA 'year of assessment' 2013 to YA 2015. I will give a rebate of 30% of tax payable up to $30,000 per Year of Assessment. This is expected to cost $1.3 billion over three years."
 
In the 2015 budget speech, the Wage Credit Scheme and PIC Bonus were prolonged for another two years. However, as the state aid levels in those prolongations were lowered, they are classified in a separate measure.

The GTA includes state guarantees and other financial incentives that are likely to affect the restructuring and performance of firms facing international competition, whether from imports, in export markets, and from foreign subsidiaries.
The list of affected trading partners concerns the migration part of this measure.