The COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act ("Act") has introduced a series of legal reliefs and mechanisms for businesses and individuals to aid them in managing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This Update highlights the key features of the latest temporary reliefs:
- The Re-Align Framework, which facilitates the renegotiation of specified contracts for eligible businesses which are significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to be available from 15 January 2021 to 26 February 2021;
- Certain additional reliefs for the Built Environment sector have come into operation on 30 November 2020. These include a universal extension of time to the completion date for eligible construction contracts under Part 8A of the Act, and co-sharing of qualifying costs arising from COVID-19 related project delays for eligible construction contracts under Part 8B of the Act; and
- The regulations relating to the property tax rebate have been amended to take into account the Rental Relief Framework via the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Transfer of Benefit of Property Tax Remission) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, which was published on 18 December 2020.
