A bonanza Budget with no pain, and no red ink

Budget 2025 lives up to the most optimistic expectations, but future Budgets must address medium-term headwinds.

- Vikram Khanna

In more than 30 years of reporting on Singapore Budgets, I have never come across one as generous as Budget 2025, which Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced on Feb 18 – though this is perhaps not surprising in an election year.

Sweeping in its scope, this Budget’s largesse extends to individuals and families, with bespoke benefits targeted at different segments of the population. It strengthens the enterprise ecosystem, helps businesses manage costs, and expands and simplifies support for training workers and building new skills.

It also boosts innovation and invests in infrastructure in ways that will have long-term payoffs, such as through top-ups of $5 billion each to the Changi Airport Development Fund, the Future Energy Fund and the Coastal and Flood Protection Fund.

Just about every family and company stands to benefit from Budget 2025, which lives up to its claim to be a "Budget for all Singaporeans".

The size of Budget 2025, at $143.1 billion, is 6.6 per cent bigger than the revised estimate for the 2024 fiscal year (FY).

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

The support for individuals and households, which amounts to more than $3 billion, includes CDC vouchers, U-Save utilities rebates, climate vouchers, special SG60 vouchers, MediSave top-ups, cash payouts, culture passes, and personal income tax rebates, to cite a partial list, with some benefits coming through almost every month in 2025 from April.

There is also support targeted at families, especially those with children, as well as seniors, hawkers, people with disabilities and even former offenders.