Singapore raises levy on foreign workers to manage labour inflow

Singapore will raise the levies on foreign workers as the country seeks to manage its reliance on foreign labor, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his budget speech today.

“The local labor market is at virtually full employment levels,” he said. “If we do not take further steps now to raise the Foreign Worker Levy, it will be difficult for us to prevent the proportion of foreign workers from rising over time, and exceeding our long-term target of one-third of the workforce.”