The Government has not and does not transfer funds to Temasek or GIC to improve their performance figures.

• As shareholder of Temasek, the Government injects capital into the company through investments in new Temasek shares, taking into account Temasek’s risk and return profile over time. These investments in Temasek’s shares are reflected in Temasek's accounts and are made public.

• An occasional misperception is that such capital injections can be used to improve the reported returns performance of Temasek. Capital injections can enable Temasek to increase the size of its portfolio, but do not improve investment returns6. Temasek's reported returns figure follows the industry practice of computing returns, which is to deduct any capital injections from (and withdrawals by) the Government in making such calculations. Temasek's returns figure is reviewed and regularly published in its annual report.

• In the case of GIC, the allocation of Government funds to GIC for investment management also cannot improve GIC's investment performance figures.

Another occasional misperception is that the Government made the Constitutional amendments in 2002 and 2004 to allow for the transfer of Past Reserves between Fifth Schedule entities and the Government to conceal investment losses. This is not true.

• The amendments in 2002 and 2004 were made to enable the transfer of Past Reserves within the Reserves Protection Framework (i.e., among the Government and Fifth Schedule entities), without any loss of protection to Past Reserves. Past Reserves cannot be transferred outside of the Reserves Protection Framework without the approval of the President. The amendments in 2002 and 2004 did not alter this position.

• Past Reserves may need to be transferred to facilitate the restructuring of Fifth Schedule entities to better deliver public services. For example, the merger of the then-Board of Commissioners of Currency, Singapore (BCCS) with Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2002 required the transfer of BCCS' Past Reserves to MAS.

• In transferring the Past Reserves from BCCS to MAS, there was no loss in the amount of Past Reserves protected. This was because the Board of Directors of MAS had undertaken to add the Past Reserves transferred from BCCS to the Past Reserves of MAS to be protected.

• The Constitutional amendments make clear that there is no draw on Past Reserves as long as: (i) Past Reserves are being transferred among entities that are within the Reserves Protection Framework; and (ii) the receiving entity undertakes to protect the Past Reserves that are transferred over. In such circumstances, the overall amount of Past Reserves being protected is unchanged, and hence the President's approval need not be obtained for such transfers.

Find out more about the management of our reserves.