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The government will likely raise GST next year to shore up its coffers in order to help out the poor more – that’s probably the official excuse we will hear from them.
When they raised GST to 7% almost ten years ago on 1st July 2007, the same reason was also given ie to top up the government’s budget so that they could spend more on social and welfare services.
For every percentage point increase in GST, tax revenues could go up by about S$1.5 billion and it is a tax that is difficult to evade unlike corporate or personal income tax. For the 2017 financial year, $11 billion GST was collected – about 16% of the government’s total operating revenue of $70 billion.
Who are The Poor?
Without a proper poverty line, it is difficult to determine how many are the actual poor people living in Singapore right now.
Are those who have no homes, nothing to eat and without any proper income deemed poor and thus deserve more help?
How about those who live in our rental flats but struggle to pay bills of all kinds in order to survive to their level best?
To be fair, the government has poured in alot of money through ComCare – a large-scale welfare social initiative to help the poor and elderly through the five Community Development Council (CDC).
Financial wizard Mr Leong Sze Hian has written an article about how the government spent only 0.1% or $130 million of our $400 billion GDP in 2016 on ComCare benefitting 40,000 households.
Moreover, according to the World Bank data in 2014, the government spent a mere 4.9% of our GDP on healthcare which is ranked right below most OECD countries. Countries like US, Sweden, Denmark, Japan and Switzerland spent above 10% of their GDP on healthcare. Mr Heng Swee Keat says the government will hope to increase healthcare expenditure from $4 billion in 2010 to $10 billion this year to about $13 billion by 2020.
More at http://www.transitioning.org/2017/1...poorer-and-rich-will-get-richer-in-singapore/
When they raised GST to 7% almost ten years ago on 1st July 2007, the same reason was also given ie to top up the government’s budget so that they could spend more on social and welfare services.
For every percentage point increase in GST, tax revenues could go up by about S$1.5 billion and it is a tax that is difficult to evade unlike corporate or personal income tax. For the 2017 financial year, $11 billion GST was collected – about 16% of the government’s total operating revenue of $70 billion.
Who are The Poor?
Without a proper poverty line, it is difficult to determine how many are the actual poor people living in Singapore right now.
Are those who have no homes, nothing to eat and without any proper income deemed poor and thus deserve more help?
How about those who live in our rental flats but struggle to pay bills of all kinds in order to survive to their level best?
To be fair, the government has poured in alot of money through ComCare – a large-scale welfare social initiative to help the poor and elderly through the five Community Development Council (CDC).
Financial wizard Mr Leong Sze Hian has written an article about how the government spent only 0.1% or $130 million of our $400 billion GDP in 2016 on ComCare benefitting 40,000 households.
Moreover, according to the World Bank data in 2014, the government spent a mere 4.9% of our GDP on healthcare which is ranked right below most OECD countries. Countries like US, Sweden, Denmark, Japan and Switzerland spent above 10% of their GDP on healthcare. Mr Heng Swee Keat says the government will hope to increase healthcare expenditure from $4 billion in 2010 to $10 billion this year to about $13 billion by 2020.
More at http://www.transitioning.org/2017/1...poorer-and-rich-will-get-richer-in-singapore/
