Government grants and your business: Download the Ultimate Cheat Sheet before it’s too late!

by | Apr 27, 2016 | Blog, Business Continuity, Cloud services, Communications, IT consultancy, Security | 0 comments

This article on Government grants has been co-written by Hitan Mehta, Managing Director (Asia) at Acuutech, and Arthur LIM, Director at Aurago Consulting

Productivity and automation have been the buzz word that the government has been promoting the past few years. Most businesses should be aware by now about the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme and they can support your business in adopting IT and productivity solutions.

What are the changes in Government Grants in 2016?

In the recent budget 2016, it was announced that the cash payout would be cut from 60% to 40%. Below are a few changes that you must know.

  • All payment and deployment of IT and productivity solutions must be done before 1 August 2016 to qualify for 60% cash payout
  • If all payment and deployment are completed before 1 August 2016, you are still entitled to 60% cash rebate even though the claims are submitted after 1 Aug 2016

With the PIC scheme reduced from 60% to 40%, are there any other grants and schemes you can leverage on to adopt new IT and productivity solutions?

>> Click on this link to get your “Ultimate Cheatsheet” now <<

Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) by e2i

The objective of IGP is to enhance a company’s productivity and sharing the productivity gains with the low-wage workers in the company. Funding by this grant is up to 50% of the eligible project costs

Requirements:

  • Must have low-wage workers earning $1,700 & below and willing to share the productivity gains with them
  • Business must be registered in Singapore under the Business Registration Act and carrying out business in Singapore.

Example of project that can be supported:

  • Adoption of integrated technology solutions such as ERP, CRM, HR systems to help businesses to improve their workflow and processes

Important notes(at time of writing this article):

  • This grant is ending on end Jun 2016 thus application has to be submitted by end May 2016.
  • This grant applies to all companies registered and operating in Singapore including companies with 100% foreign shareholding.

Capability Development Grant (CDG) by SPRING Singapore

The objective of CDG is to help companies build capabilities. One of the key areas that can be supported is the productivity category where consulting with integrated IT solutions are supported. Funding can be up to 70% for the consulting and eligible project costs.

Requirements:

  • Registered and operating in Singapore
  • At least 30% local shareholding
  • Group annual sales turnover <$100mil OR group employment of < 200 employees

Example of project that can be supported:

  • A restaurant is keen to adopt integrated IT solution (Point of sales system, inventory management system, CRM system and HR payroll system). He also engages a consultant to help him in evaluating his workflow to optimise the productivity of his company with the adoption of the IT solution. The consulting fee, software and hardware fees would be claimable under CDG.

By tapping on CDG and IGP, you can build up your internal capabilities at a fraction of the cost.

Expanding beyond Singapore

Moving forward, if you are looking at expanding beyond Singapore, you could potentially save up to 70% of your cost to expand overseas. We have prepared an easy-to-understand “Ultimate Cheatsheet on grants for business expansion” .

This cheat sheet consists of :

  • Easy-to-understand 1 page flow chart of what grants you can apply
  • Total covering 11 different business costs including both local and overseas expansion costs