In a step that will bring smiles on the faces of Singaporeans, government is open to the idea of allowing people to use money kept in their Supplementary Retirement Scheme (SRS) accounts to purchase Singapore Savings Bonds.
This was stated by Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) who also happens to be a board member at the Monetary Authority of Singapore in Parliament while replying to a question posed by West Coast Member of Parliament Patrick Tay to the Prime Minister.
He also said, “There is also a cost involved in making the SRS channel available, and the government has to assess if it can benefit a sufficiently broad segment of people.”
On the Parliamentary question of Tay’s regarding whether caps on SSB purchases can be raised, Ong, said “ The limits of S$50,000 per individual for each issue, and maximum overall limit of S$100,000 are not cast in stone. However, so far, only a small minority of SSB investors have reached the boundaries of these limits.”
One in five applicants, on average, ask for the maximum S$50,000 of a given issue, and less than 7 per cent of investors are near, or have reached, the S$100,000 overall limitThe government will monitor take-up of SSB before considering whether to raise the limits, he said.
The limits ensure that the SSB can be available to more individuals.
In December, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that up to S$2 billion of SSB will be offered this year.
To date, more than 40,000 individuals hold more than S$1.1 billion of SSB on aggregate, said Ong.