SINGAPORE: More than 85,000 employers in Singapore will receive S$660 million in Wage Credit Scheme (WCS) payouts by Mar 31, according to a joint press release by the Ministry of Finance and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) on Friday (Mar 17).
The WCS payouts co-fund 20 per cent of the wage increases given in 2015 and 2016 to more than 600,000 qualifying Singaporean employees who earned a gross monthly wage of S$4,000 and below, they said.
According to the authorities, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will receive around 70 per cent of the sum disbursed. The payout will be credited directly into the employers’ GIRO bank account used for income tax and GST purposes, or issued as cheques to employers.
Eligible employers will receive letters from IRAS by Mar 31 informing them of the total WCS payout they will be receiving. Appeals regarding the payouts must be submitted to IRAS by Jun 30 for consideration on a case-by-case basis, the press release said.
Employers who would like to qualify for the last tranche of WCS payouts in 2018 have to pay qualifying wage increases to Singaporean employees in 2017 or sustain qualifying wage increases given in 2015 and/or 2016, the authorities said.
The WCS was introduced in 2013 as part of the Transition Support Package. It is intended to help businesses cope with rising wage costs so that they can free up resources to invest in productivity, and share their productivity gains with their employees.
