13th November 2006, PM Lee announced in Parliament that GST to be increased from present 5% to 7%. Effectiveness of rise will be announced at a later date as it has not been decided yet.
The rise of GST is for your sake, okay!
"This is inevitable over the next 5 to 10 years - infrastructure investments will cost money - R&D is to cost $5b over the next 5 years; as medical technology improves, people age and more will go to hospital to get more treatment, so spending is bound to go up. As we tilt the playing field across the board, the lower income will be getting another boost not just once in a while. Therefore its better to start building resources now so that when we spend more, we have the means to do so.
It will give us precious extra resources to implement social programmes like Workfare later on. Our aim is to help the lower income groups and the elderly, not to increase their burdens. When we implement the GST increase, it's not just the GST increase, it's the package which will fully offset the impact of the GST increase and begin to strengthen the social safety nets and tilt the balance in favour of the low income groups - we will not just raise the GST but we will have a comprehensive offset package.
It is not just an offset package to deal with the GST. It is a whole set of measures which we are taking in order to tilt the playing field in favour of the lower income group, which is what we have to add and tally in the balance, and my purpose is to help the lower income group. For the middle income, it will be generally about ok; for the higher income, I think the higher income should end up paying more overall. It's part of being one society. I'm not going to tax 15% on income tax, I'm not going to tax 25% from GST the way the Scandanavians do, but I have to make the adjustments of 2% which I think is fair and I think Singaporeans will support," said Mr Lee.
PM Lee said that Singaporeans will support - Will you? I'm not in favour for this, to be frank. I'm not earning a cent at the moment (occupation: student), and all I get is pocket money from my parents. If GST were to increase (Yes, it will increase), does this means that pocket money will increase by 2% too?
Bus fares are increasing, and I don't seem to get an increase in my pocket money too.
Source: CNA
