The Singapore government will extend the Jobs Credit Scheme (JCS) for six months by providing another two, stepped-down payouts in March and June 2010. This was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong this morning at the NTUC Ordinary Delegates Conference.

The two additional payments will cost $675 million and be funded from the Government's regular budget, instead of from past reserves.

The first extra payment, which will be paid out on March 2010, will be based on 6 per cent of salary of employees on the payroll in January 2010.

Subsequently, the June 2010 payment will be based on 3 per cent of salary of employees on the payroll in April 2010.

The Jobs Credit Scheme, which was part of the Resilience Package in Budget 2009, has helped to ease companies' operating costs and avoid large to lay-offs of workers in the crisis.

As PM Lee explained in his speech, with the economy now having stabilised it is timely to phase out the JCS and adopt more targeted measures to support economic restructuring and enhance productivity. Budget 2010 will introduce and enhance programmes to support companies' efforts to grow, innovate and compete based on improved productivity.