President Halimah approves draw of S$6b from past reserves to fund Singapore's Covid-19 expenditure

PRESIDENT Halimah Yacob has given her formal approval for the government to draw S$6 billion from the past reserves to fund a "multi-pronged approach" to continue to support Singapore's Covid-19 public health expenditure.

"Even as we prepare to transit to the new normal, it is not time yet to spare efforts in areas such as testing, clinical management, vaccination and therapeutics," she wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Mar 23) after giving her assent to the Supply Bill for Financial Year 2022.

Madam Halimah said that this is the third consecutive financial year that Singapore has had to draw on its past reserves to battle Covid-19.

She added that these draws are "inevitable" because of the need to garner the necessary resources to protect Singaporeans and bolster the economy.

In his Budget speech on Feb 18, Finance Minister Lawrence Wong said that the cumulative expected draw on past reserves over FY2020 to FY2022 was up to S$42.9 billion, which is less than the initial draw of S$52 billion that was originally agreed to for FY2020.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) had announced last month that the breakdown of the S$6 billion would be S$3.7 billion for testing, clinical management and contact tracing; S$1.2 billion for vaccination and therapeutics; and S$1.1 billion for isolation facilities, border management and safe distancing.

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"I take heart that the government is prudent in the use of past reserves, rolling out measures that are critically needed for our people and businesses," said Madam Halimah in her Facebook post.

In giving assent to the Supply Bill, she said she had the benefit of the recommendations by the Council of Presidential Advisers after considering the information provided by MOF on Budget 2022.

"With perseverance and cooperation from everyone, I am confident that we will once again ride out the current Covid-19 Omicron wave, and further enhance our resilience as a nation," she said.