'Show your kindness by not increasing GST' — Netizens respond to PM Lee's "Make room for kindness" message

[SBFNews]

'Show your kindness by not increasing GST' — Netizens respond to PM Lee's "Make room for kindness" message -
theindependent.sg

After Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong posted a message reminding Singaporeans to “make room for kindness” specifically when it comes to lifts and queuing, netizens responded by saying that real kindness would be stopping the GST hike.

In recent news, Mr Lee shared a message with Singapore after receiving a letter from a mother who said she had to take her baby in a stroller down on an escalator as there was too long of a queue by a lift.

He encouraged Singaporeans to be aware of those in society who have a greater need to use lifts and to give way to them. “Besides parents with strollers, some others too will have greater need to use a lift – persons with disabilities, seniors, and pregnant women,” he wrote. “COVID-19 has shown us that we are a caring society. Let’s all show consideration for those in need and make room for kindness.”

In response to this, while some netizens came forward with their own personal experiences similar to the situation of the distraught mother, others had a different picture of kindness. “The greatest kindness he can give to Singaporeans is to stop making the cost of living higher and higher,” wrote one netizen. ” Stop GST.”
Come Jan 1, 2023, Singapore is set to raise its Goods and Services Tax (GST) from seven per cent to eight per cent. Then, on Jan 1, 2024, the nation is set to raise the GST from eight per cent to nine per cent.

“Mak(ing) room for kindness is not the common sense of giving way to (those) too young and too old,” another online user wrote. “Please show your kindness by not increasing GST by January 2023 please!”

Image: screengrab from Facebook comments/ The Independent Singapore

Image: screengrab from Facebook comments/ The Independent Singapore

Image: screengrab from Facebook comments/ The Independent Singapore

Image: screengrab from Facebook comments/ The Independent Singapore

“Make room for kindness”: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urges Singaporeans to give way to people with “greater need” to use lift

 

[Cottonmouth]

Fuck his mother's kindness cheebye.
This motherfucker got what stance to talk about kindness.
I will personally flog his corpse for 69 days.

 

[tobelightlight]

Dumbfucked flaccid boomers and all those sinkie pussies voted for such people to be your minister. Now all of you are vaccinated and going to die from it. Karma is a bitch. GSt increased is really peanuts if you compare what you ( n your family) will be going through with your body.

 

[bobby]

One kindness.....

 

[mahjongking]

fucking imbecile parasite motherfucker, early die early good

 

[ODACHEK]

 

[laksaboy]

All those 'free' tokens, vaccines, masks, hand sanitizers... now do you daft Sinkies finally understand that they were not free?

A nation of sheep deserves a government of wolves.

A government that is big enough to give you everything, is also big enough to take away everything.

 

[mojito]

Prices all ready raised in anticipation of gst. U think they will fall back if gst is not raised? Gst is to help the poor! U the one being unkind sinkie!

 

[batman1]

Singapore is the ONLY country in the world that increases GST during the covid-19 pandemic.
Well,cannot complain now,the 61% voted for it ! HUAT !

 

[laksaboy]

Singapore is the ONLY country in the world that increases GST during the covid-19 pandemic.
Well,cannot complain now,the 61% voted for it ! HUAT !

The GST is just the tip of the iceberg, only one method among many to 'skin the cat'.

Well, that's what being ruled by kleptocrats is all about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy#Characteristics

 

[LexLuthor]

This auntie Adeline quite smart. KNN collected GST vouchers liao then ask PM not to increase GST.

 

[laksaboy]

This auntie Adeline quite smart. KNN collected GST vouchers liao then ask PM not to increase GST.

GST vouchers are for one-time use. GST hikes are forever.

 

[LexLuthor]

GST vouchers are for one-time use. GST hikes are forever.

That's why I said she is smart. If she wins, she gets GST vouchers and PM no hike GST.

Win-win situation.

 

[no_faith]

Ok next year 2023 no increase to 8%, straight increase 10%

 

[SBFNews]

Ok next year 2023 no increase to 8%, straight increase 10%

GST is ok in principle, but don't GST on every damn thing lah. There should be a wider class of GST exemptions. And pls don't tell me GST is to help the poor . @PAP.

 

[LexLuthor]

GST is ok in principle, but don't GST on every damn thing lah. There should be a wider class of GST exemptions. And pls don't tell me GST is to help the poor . @PAP.

There should be no GST on Viagra for Merdeka and Pioneer generations.

You should lobby for this.

 

[laksaboy]

GST is ok in principle, but don't GST on every damn thing lah. There should be a wider class of GST exemptions. And pls don't tell me GST is to help the poor . @PAP.

If exempt this and exempt that, how to huat? What's wrong with collecting more money?

 

[Pinkieslut]

Fark the Sinkies ai pi ai chi Tua liap knee

 

[bic_cherry]

Elephant in the room is that the PAP is running an opaque mega slush fund called the 'reserves' and turned land into a natural resource by leasing it out (leasehold) it at high prices to rich locals and foreigners to build bungalows and condos. Then using 3rd world logic to deceive the 61.2% 3rd world, banana republic citizens here that only oil, gold, palm oil, pig farms and banana trees etc can ever constitute 'natural resources' (but not leasehold land sold at above S$1000-2000psf that returns to government after a few years) to deny that trust people have for PAP (thus the willingness of developers to bid for land here at way above S$1000psf), thus, PAP is using this selectively stale and obsolete logic to claim "no natural resources" at the expense of betraying the trust that people have for the PAP to pay world record prices for property here. This ruse has worked well as an excuse to raise GST to squeeze more blood from citizens further.

Selective/ bigoted/ shallow logic and creative accounting much, no? This is the elephant in the room, and we must not miss the woods for the trees when presented with the PAP propaganda we read now.

 

[bic_cherry]

Increasing GST shows how wicked and self-serving the PAP is.

The following essay will advise and explain about much better options for government revenue than the regressive and administratively cumbersome GST increase.

It is formatted into 5 sections: Background/ Observations, General Impression, Recommendations, Conclusion and Post Script; (U can just read the last sections if u don't have the time).


Background/ Observations:
1) It is known that the wealth divide (more so than just the Gini coefficient) is frighteningly wide in Singapore now and strategies for wealth taxation are needed to reduce the gulf now: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sin...elook-fiscal-strategies-lawrence-wong-2246646

2) GST is a form of regressive taxation, “taking a larger percentage of income from low-income earners than from high-income earners” https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/regressivetax.asp

3) In the The Singapore Bicentennial Conference, Professor Tommy Koh showed how self-serving and wicked the American Business model which Singapore emulates is, as compared to Singapore employers historically, where profit sharing was the norm traditionally drawn to its logical conclusion of copying wholesale American business models, Singapore is likely to disintegrate into a state of extreme political polarization and civil war, just as the American society is entering into now (or despotic governance of DPRK central control type).

4) Limited liability companies need to be properly taxed and regulated, to ensure that they work for societal good ('Legal scholars and others, such as Joel Bakan, have observed that a business corporation created as a "legal person" has a psychopathic personality because it is required to elevate its own interests above those of others even when this inflicts major risks and grave harms on the public or on other third-parties'). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation

5) The income (wage share) of workers in Singapore is one of the lowest in high income countries. This is because most of the income is accrued to capital, i.e. share holders with workers only earning 42.5% of GDP (2001-2007) and ranking last in the list of high income countries shown. “Singapore is the richest, if not, one of the richest countries in the world, by GDP per capita. Yet, it performs so dismally in sharing the wealth that its people had helped it built with the people. ” https://thehearttruths.wordpress.co...owest-wage-share-among-high-income-countries/

6) The tax contribution of corporates is oddly low when it should be much higher, since in theory, a corporation with zero profits is much more alive than one declaring losses, but an average worker with a pay cut (increased tax burden) is likely to experience a fall in lifestyle or even hunger or postponement of retirement depending on his expendable income. Whilst the income tax revenue FY2021/22: ratio of personal($14.2B):corp($18.2B) is roughly in the same ration as the 2007 wage share of 42.5% [14.2/(14.2+18.2)]=43.82% , the ratio would be unequal if the figure for wage share in 2022 was less. However, the elephant in the room is the property tax rate and collection amounts. It is absurd for corporate property tax to be only a flat 10% rate when residential property tax is up to 32-36% (FY2024- depending on owner occupation status or not). https://www.industrialguru.sg/financial/property-tax-rates-for-industrial-and-commercial-properties/
Even the difference between corporate and personal income tax rates is less stark, being a flat 17% for corporate tax and up to 22% for the highest personal income tax tier.



General Impression:
In order for society to remain cohesive and avoid polarization if the multiracial USA population is anything to go by, Singapore is on the road towards more social unrest and polarization as exemplified by the USA electorate and its obsolete and skewed presidential electoral college system, which our GRC system somewhat resembles (first past the post, grouping of districts etc), which is as elitist/racist as it is susceptible to gerrymandering, such that we might well sleep walk into a state of sociology-political turmoil the likes of the USA with talk of civil war within a decade https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/29/us-civil-war-fears-poll

The total property tax in FY2021/22 was $4.7B, assuming that 50% was from commercial property taxes, this is indeed a pitiful amount and ought to be doubled, since for all intents and purposes, these properties do generate high income (corporate property rentals are often higher then residential property costs etc and corporates are owned by wealthy shareholders who should contribute their fair share of taxes).


Recommendations:
The fact that corporates paid $18.2B in taxes @17% rate indicates at least $107.1B in declared corporate profits in FY2021/22 (likely much higher due to fairly rampant under declaration/ evasion, legitimate tax discounts excluded from what's actually collected. Commercial property taxes should at least double (to 20%) in future to ensure that all land is optimally used. This should add at least another $2.35B in tax revenue, sufficient to cover for a 1.5% increase in GST tax rate.
An additional freehold property tax of roughly 20%AV for ALL freehold properties (both commercial and residential) should definitely uplift the total new property tax collected by an amount sufficient to eradicate the need to increase GST by 2% altogether (approx S$3B p.a.).


Conclusion:
In conclusion, it is false and disingenuous to say that GST is the best and only option that the PAP government has left to increase government revenue to cover for increase healthcare costs inflation moving forwards. An increase in commercial property tax as well as a new standardized freehold surcharge levy charged on any property whose remaining lease is in excess of 103 years will provide adequate revenue to eradicate the need to increase GST by 3% altogether.


Post Script:
To serve religion and the poor, there shall be a commercial property tax rebate/waiver option (as is currently available to religious institutions) for such qualifying charities and non-profits (such approved concepts, as a cap on CEO remuneration which is not more than 3x the median hourly salary of full time staff etc). The quantum of commercial property tax refund claimable directly by the company providing charity programs (with transparent criteria) shall be limited to the actual/pro-rata property tax paid, and the non-profits accounts made publicly transparent etc etc.