<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Jobs Credit would help SMEs if working shareholders were included
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I AGREE with last Wednesday's letter by Mr Arthur Tan, 'No reason to exclude working shareholders from Jobs Credit'.
The Jobs Credit scheme pays employers 12 per cent of the first $2,500 of each month's wages for each resident worker. This is equivalent to a 9 percentage point Central Provident Fund (CPF) cut, and the aim is to save jobs during the economic downturn.
In this respect, there should be no exclusion of working shareholders from the scheme as they also contribute the full amount of CPF.
Most if not all the thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore have working shareholders who took cost-cutting measures like slashing pay to keep their companies afloat. Jobs Credit would be of additional help to SMEs if it includes working shareholders.
As a working shareholder, I have contributed to CPF without fail but held back my salary for the past eight months in order not to retrench staff.
These are extraordinary times for the economy, so the Jobs Credit scheme should be used to its maximum intended purposes.
I hope the authorities will explain the rationale behind the decision to exclude working shareholders from Jobs Credit. Lim Chee Wee
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I AGREE with last Wednesday's letter by Mr Arthur Tan, 'No reason to exclude working shareholders from Jobs Credit'.
The Jobs Credit scheme pays employers 12 per cent of the first $2,500 of each month's wages for each resident worker. This is equivalent to a 9 percentage point Central Provident Fund (CPF) cut, and the aim is to save jobs during the economic downturn.
In this respect, there should be no exclusion of working shareholders from the scheme as they also contribute the full amount of CPF.
Most if not all the thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore have working shareholders who took cost-cutting measures like slashing pay to keep their companies afloat. Jobs Credit would be of additional help to SMEs if it includes working shareholders.
As a working shareholder, I have contributed to CPF without fail but held back my salary for the past eight months in order not to retrench staff.
These are extraordinary times for the economy, so the Jobs Credit scheme should be used to its maximum intended purposes.
I hope the authorities will explain the rationale behind the decision to exclude working shareholders from Jobs Credit. Lim Chee Wee
