When you buy a brand new car, the govt will earn more than 2
cars in return in its ARF and COE! I think it's irrelevant to talk
or compare GST with other countries. If you are comparing, then 1
Singapore car would exchage for almost 3 cars in Malaysia, more
than 2 in the US........
Well, if you drive a car through CTE to the CBD area each day, you
would have to fork out at least $5 of gantry charges each trip! Any
simple minded Singaporeans would be able to count how much goes to
the government's coffer. This is only a few billion the government
is earning from these sources, how about road tax, petrol tax
traffic fines.... The only blessing that Singaporeans enjoy is a
good road system, and those money are partly put to good use and
the yearly excess should be channel to other area to alleviate the
pains of its people who have been very supportive of PAP. This is
my first perception that the government should not increase that
GST.
No doubt Singapore has no natural resources to backup its future
survival. There are many surviving nations with similar fate. You
survival depend on your survival skills. How well you could manage
your time, your intangible resources count...Singapore has managed
itself well and has built up a sizable reserves of more than
US$100billion. Its investment returns should be quite a bit too.
Should the government acts in zeal to increase the GST to stress
its population further when many are out of job? Even those who are
still employed are shaky and unsure when their turn will come, so
is this an occasion to budget for a surplus when thousands are
still trying to keep their head out of the trouble water?
Many view that new package of cutting the income tax as helping the
rich to get richer, and the poor to get poorer. This is especially
so in the HDB heartland, where most of the poor and the lower
income groups are located. Frankly, many lawmakers or MPs are out
of touch with the plight of the heartlanders, you will see the MPs
may be during election time or if you are lucky, or if you are
average income group, you may be able to rub shoulder with one,
once in a blue moon of course! How many HDB heartlander will mourn
to you that they are poor, or they are struggling to keep
themselves afloat? All human have personal plight and self respect.
I, as a heartlander, could only empathise with them as I know and
understand them more than those outsiders. Many a time I have
stumble across a mini one room flat with more than one families
cramp into it, and they are so touch if I donated my old clothes to
them. I did not retch at their living condition, I sympathise with
their predicament. One would wonder how do these families benefit
when they do not even have a chance to pay a cent of income tax
when you mention income tax cut for them in return for GST hike,
when even an average income worker could not earn enough to match
those benefit saved by those big fat top income earners? Take a
minister for example, if he earn only $50,000 per month, his yearly
income will be $600,000 and his 6% saved on tax cut will come to
how much, will it match one of those average Singaporean worker's
annual income? calculate for yourself!
Those rich or super rich may hardly contribute to any GST at all,
besides enjoying the big fat tax cut. They can afford to shop
overseas anytime they wish. The lower income groups have no choice
at all, they have no chance to enjoy any tax cut yet they have to
pay more for GST when they shop locally. They will be negatively
affected first before they can ironically enjoy the possibility of
more jobs created for them. If you talk about corporate tax cut,
there may be a posibility. As the lower tax will boost companies's
earning, so more foreign company will have preference to take
Singapore as their base. As for individual, if a profitable company
can pay them well, what is another 6% of personal income tax, it
may be just peanuts!
Any sane and poor Singaporean do not vote for a system to further
impoverish themselves, as they always believe in PM Goh words of
more good years ahead and NOT more miserable years ahead. No matter
how much the subsidies the government fork out, it may not be able
to compensate the long term impact for those poor heartlanders, let
alone this worst than expected economic downturn! And do'nt forget
that continuous subsidies may create a helpless citizenry, who will
always look to the government to spoon feed them. Take a closer
look at the welfare system in the west and the bumiputra first in
Malaysia, and you will realise how those systems will stagnate the
progress of a nation and increase the sensitivity level of each
individual who refuse to work for progress, but envious of others'
wealth and prosperity.
Is Singapore prepared to continue to hand out those subsidies, and
distort the credibility of the whole system? Has the lawmakers
examining the implication of the new package before they implement
it in haste, when the world's economy is still in doldrum?