It is immensely clear that the Government Treasury is bloated with
the hard earned savings from Singaporeans who labor in this captive
economy.
The salary that Singaporeans earned are taxed and spent on every
economic service and consumption that are all provided by
Government Linked Companies, and there are very few 100% PRIVATE
ALTERNATIVES that can compete with the GLCs.
The tentacles of the Government exist at every point and level of
the economy to provide Singaporeans with food, transport,
education, medical, news prints and broadcast media,
telecommunications, travel, and utilities.
After taking all that it can in the services provided to
Singaporeans, the Government will take more from the remaining
savings of Singaporeans by direct and indirect taxes through -
income tax, COE, PARF, Road Tax, ERP, GST, stamp duties, licences,
permits, foreign labor tax, extra-ordinary taxes on ciigarettes and
luxury items.
Despite a fattening Treasury, and the refusal of the Government to
be more transparent in the manner in which the GIC and Temasek are
funded, and in the reporting of their investments - it is clearly
outrageous that the Government should consider another increase of
2% to the existing 5% GST.
Should Singaporeans not be concerned that this 2% increase in GST
is being made so soon after the disaster with the amount of monies
lost by the various GLCs that are known to receive surplusses from
the Reserves ?
This increase comes too close to the disastrous reduction in value
to the S$3
BILLION takeover of SHIN CORP - in which
no one dare to speak of it during the Parliamentary debate.
POSB was available for DBS to takeover and plug its losses when DBS
had to lose
75% of the money injected into taking over the Thai Danu Bank
PLUS the stupendous discovery of an unknown and hidden losses of
over US$400Million in bad debts - almost one over year after the
takeover.
This time around, in December 2005, Temasek announced it was
acquiring Shin Corp for US$1.7 BILLION (S$3 BILLION), with the deal
completed by April 2006; and by July 2006 the share value had seen
the evaporation of US$1.6 BILLION, AND with its
Shin Corp subsidiary - iTV - having to pay a fine of US$1.99
BILLION to the Central Administration Court on 9 May 2006. (See
Note 1 Below).
This time around, with the stupendous loss from the S$3 BILLION
thrown into SHIN CORP, PLUS the unreported fine of
US$1.99 BILLION in penalty - it is too obvious for Temasek to cover
a large bleeding wound by absorbing some other cash-rich GLC that
it does not presently control.
With a string of losses that began with Suzhou, surely the
Singapore Reserves must be affected, and need new cash injection by
the Singaporean Slaves ?
The string of well known disasters over the recent five years will
include:
SingTel losses with the
Australian OPTUS venture after taking it over for a sum of
US$8.4 BILLION;
DBS had to take a $700Million writedown on its Hong Kong Dao
Heng Bank bought for US$5.4 BILLION in 2001;
Temasek loss of $336 Million in 2004 and another $278 Million in
2005 in its investment in its 62% stake in Global Crossing, and the
continued loss of S$1BILLION over 10 years from the semi-conductor
operation at Chartered Industry;
Temasek's acquisition of the Bank of China for US$2.5 BILLION and
the Korean Exchange Bank for US$9 BILLION have all been made
without any accounting to any Singaporean Oversight Committee, and
the performance of these investments remains questionable;
Can there be any other better reason to increase 2% to the current
5% GST ?
In all the 45 over years of independence, has this Ruling Party
ever considered the down-trodden and provide free meals - except
for the sharks fin soup to entice the voters, which is now
abandoned ?
Even with the GST at 7%, the poor will still have to pay-back for
the attention given; as this Government is well know to give with
one hand and take back with two hands.
If the Government is serious about helping the poorer sections of
Singapore, the amount that Temasek and all GLCs have lost in their
overseas ventures would have fed the poorer Singaporeans over the
next 100 YEARS.
Note 1
Transnational Capital : a Political economy study on the Shin -
Temasek Deal
- Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn
University
