Data on outstanding Skills Development Levy collections owed by companies

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim, Sengkang GRC

Question

To ask the Minister for Education with regard to outstanding Skills Development Levy (SDL) collections owed by companies (a) what is the current breakdown by (i) number of public and private companies respectively and (ii) number of multinational corporations and small to medium-sized enterprises respectively; and (b) whether the companies in SDL arrears have been simultaneously accessing SkillsFuture credits for their employees.

Response

1. SSG has started engaging affected employers whose actual payments of Skills Development Levy (SDL) differ from their estimated SDL liabilities. Such variance can occur due to actual underpayments, or because employers used an updated set of local and foreign employee data, at the point of SDL payment, in which case there is no underpayment.

2. SSG will contact all affected employers by the end of this financial year. All public sector employers have paid in full their estimated underpayments. Until the process is completed, SSG is unable to conclusively provide the breakdown of private companies involved at this juncture.

3. There is no concern of affected companies accessing the SkillsFuture Credit of their employees because companies cannot claim SkillsFuture Credit on behalf of their employees for training purposes.