12 Budgets in 5 years: From tackling the Covid-19 pandemic to charting the future

Over the past five years, Singapore passed an unprecedented 12 Budgets, including five in 2020 as the Republic sought to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and chart a new way forward.

- Ng Wei Kai

Leader of the House Indranee Rajah in a speech on March 10 summed up the past five years and reflected on measures taken.

She noted that this will be the last Budget passed by the current Parliament, as it will be dissolved ahead of a general election that must be held by November.

"So much has happened that I thought it would be appropriate to do a look back and consider what this House has — by approving the unprecedented number of Budgets brought before it — enabled us to achieve in this 14th Parliament," said Ms Indranee, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development.

The Straits Times looks back at the Budgets passed between 2020 and 2025.

FIVE COVID-19 BUDGETS IN 2020, THREE MORE IN 2021 Ms Indranee called these years the "dark and bleak" start to the 14th Parliament, when Singapore was still not fully out of lockdowns and did not yet have vaccines.

The Government rolled out several Budgets named Unity, Resilience, Solidarity and Fortitude in the 13th term of Parliament. After the 2020 General Election, it announced additional Budget measures in October that year as the country grappled with the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Singapore ended the 2019 financial year with an overall deficit of $1.7 billion, and its 2020 Budget estimated a deficit of $10.9 billion—the highest in a decade.

The Government drew up to $52 billion from past reserves to fund wide-ranging measures introduced to combat the pandemic and the economic fallout.

Measures included a $6.6 billion Assurance Package and a $1.6 billion Care and Support Package to help ordinary Singaporeans cope.