From Jan 1, subscribers to Netflix and other overseas digital services will have to pay a 7 per cent goods and services tax. Prisca Ang highlights nine other policy changes that will affect you in 2020.

INCREASE IN CPF RETIREMENT SUM PAYOUTS

Some Central Provident Fund (CPF) members will see an increase in monthly payouts in their retirement.

Payouts through the Retirement Sum Scheme (RSS), the main CPF retirement payout scheme for members born before 1958, will last till age 90, instead of the current 95, from next year.

More than a third of members on the RSS who are currently receiving payouts, or some 60,000 people, will see a rise in payouts, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo announced in Parliament last month.

The new rules will apply to all RSS members who turn 65 from July 1. They will take effect from Jan 1 for those who are currently receiving payouts.

HIGHER BASIC HEALTHCARE SUM

The Basic Healthcare Sum – or estimated savings required for basic subsidised healthcare needs in old age – will be raised from $57,200 to $60,000 for CPF members under 65 from Jan 1.

Those who turn 65 next year will have the sum fixed at $60,000, which will not be changed.

Those who are 66 and above next year will see no changes to their cohort’s Basic Healthcare Sum.

MINIMUM AGE FOR SMOKERS TO BE RAISED TO 20

The minimum age for smoking will be raised to 20 on Jan 1, as Singapore intensifies efforts to get people to stub out cigarettes.

The minimum age was raised from 18 to 19 in January, and will be raised to 21 on Jan 1, 2021, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced last year.

TIGHTER FOREIGN WORKER QUOTA

Companies in the service sector will have to rely even less on foreign workers.

The Government is tightening the dependency ratio ceiling, or the proportion of foreign workers a firm can employ, from 40 per cent now to 38 per cent on Jan 1 next year, and to 35 per cent on Jan 1, 2021.

For the subset of S Pass workers – mid-skilled foreigners earning at least $2,300 a month – the quota will be cut from 15 per cent now to 13 per cent on Jan 1 next year, and to 10 per cent on Jan 1, 2021, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced during the Budget speech in February.

FEWER APPROVED OVERSEAS MEDICAL SCHOOLS

Those going overseas to study medicine with the aim of practising as doctors here will have fewer schools to choose from.

The number of approved overseas medical schools will be cut from 160 to 103 from Jan 1, the Singapore Medical Council and MOH announced in April.

Students who have already secured a place or who are currently studying at one of the 57 schools will not be affected.

COMPULSORY DRONE REGISTRATION FROM JAN 2

One rule that will kick in after New Year’s Day, from Jan 2, is mandatory registration with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore for all drones weighing more than 250g.

This policy change, which comes on top of higher penalties for various offences involving drones, comes after Parliament passed the Air Navigation (Amendment) Bill on Nov 4.

Currently, first-time offenders caught flying a drone without a valid permit can be fined up to $20,000. Repeat offenders can be jailed for up to 15 months and fined up to $40,000.

Going forward, first-time offenders can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to $50,000, while repeat offenders can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to $100,000.

Drone users will have a three-month grace period from Jan 2 to register their devices.

They can purchase registration labels online or over the counter at designated post offices, before completing the registration online.

HIGHER PAY FOR CLEANERS AND LANDSCAPE WORKERS

Cleaners and landscape maintenance workers will receive bonuses from Jan 1 and annual pay rises in the next few years.

The measures come under the Progressive Wage Model, which sets out the minimum pay for different job levels and pegs wage increases to a skills ladder.

Eligible staff in the landscaping sector will receive a mandatory annual bonus from Jan 1.

Landscape maintenance employees who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents and who have worked for the same employer for at least 12 months will be paid the bonus.

The payout in any given year must be no less than two weeks of the worker’s basic monthly wage. It has to be paid at least once but not more than twice a year.

Cleaners will also receive a bonus from Jan 1, and 3 per cent annual wage increases from next year to 2022. This will be implemented for all licensed cleaning businesses and for all resident cleaners from July 1.

E-SCOOTER BAN ON FOOTPATHS

Electric scooters were banned from footpaths from Nov 5, and riders of these personal mobility devices caught flouting the rule will be issued warnings until the end of the year.

But from Jan 1, strict enforcement of the rule will kick in. This means those caught can be fined up to $2,000, jailed for up to three months, or both.

COUPLES TO GET MORE HELP FOR ASSISTED REPRODUCTION

More couples will be able to receive financial support for assisted reproduction.

The Government will also lift the age limit of 45 for women to undergo in-vitro fertilisation (IVF). The number of assisted reproduction technology (ART) cycles a woman can undergo will also no longer be capped.

At present, a woman is allowed to undergo a maximum of only 10 cycles up to the age of 40, and five cycles after that age. ART treatments include IVF.

From Jan 1, eligible couples going through intra-uterine insemination (IUI) treatment at public assisted reproduction centres will receive assistance of up to 75 per cent, capped at $1,000 per treatment cycle, for a maximum of three cycles.

There is currently no subsidy for those undergoing IUI procedures, which involve inserting a prepared sperm sample into the uterus, close to the time of ovulation.

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