The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) Office on Wed (1 Apr) issued a correction direction to a Facebook user over a post on the supplementary Resilience Budget announced by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat last week.
The correction direction, issued upon Mr Heng’s instruction, targeted a post made by user “超静” (“tifinnytara”), in which she questioned the source of funding for Singapore Airlines (SIA)’s capital raising exercise.
Government fact-checking website Factually explained that the user’s claim that nearly one-third of the S$48 billion package will go to SIA is false.
“SIA’s S$15 billion capital raising exercise, announced on 26 March 2020, is distinct and separate from the Resilience Budget, and is not funded by the Government,” according to Factually.
Factually also rejected the Facebook user’s claim that S$17 billion from Singapore’s past reserves will be used for Temasek Holdings.
“To support the Resilience Budget, the Government is proposing to draw up to S$17 billion from our Past Reserves for broad-based economy-wide and sector-wide schemes,” the statement read.
The new measures which will draw on the country’s past reserves include — but are not limited to — the enhancement of Jobs Support Scheme (S$13.8b), the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (S$1.2b), and the Aviation Support Package (S$0.4b).
“None of the above schemes are ring-fenced to be for Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited (“Temasek”) or Temasek-linked companies,” said Factually.
Additionally, S$20 billion has been set aside in the form of loan capital “to support good companies with strong capabilities and to catalyse private sector loan capital”, the statement added.
“None of this S$20 billion set aside as loan capital will be used by the Government to subscribe to SIA’s fund-raising exercise announced on 26 March 2020,” Factually stressed.
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