11/15/2006
singaporeans to celebrate increase in GST!
Lower Income Singaporeans can celebrate rise in GST!
The main reason for this increase in GST is to help the lower income Singaporeans, to close the income gap, to make their lives better. For closing the income gap, this can be simply dismissed. It is hardly a drop in the ocean. Forget it.
There are 330,000 Singaporeans earning less than $1500 a month, bearly making ends meet. I believe this is the group that will be helped most. There should be better off because of the GST. This is the first time that some Singaporeans, or the lower income Singaporeans can celebrate on a rise in GST. How can they benefit and be better off?
Assuming they spend every cent they earned, all $1500, which is very likely, a 2% increase means they will need to pay $30 more per month on their consumption. All things being equal, the govt needs to reimburse them $30 just to break even. For them to benefit from the GST increase, the sum to be given to them must be more than $30, maybe $50. This is hardly going to make a difference to their lives as money is hardly enough. Most are living on a monthly deficit. A more decent sum should be $100 a month. This may help them a little to cover some of the debt or things they have been skimping on.
At $100 pm for 330,000 Singaporeans, this will work out to be $1200 x 330,000 or $396 million annually for as long as the 2% GST is in force. For the GST can only go away if it is cut. If not, they will have to bear the burden of this increase for the rest of their lives, an increase to make their lives better.
The problem is the lower middle income group, maybe another 500,000 Singaporeans in this category. Say they be given the same amount, that will come to $600 million. If the total collection is $1.5 billion, there will still be a surplus of $500 million to go around.
Now, will the lower income and lower middle income benefit from this GST increase? This just sounds too good to be true. What is the catch?
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6 comments:
Hi Redbean,
GST increase is worth celebrating since it is every four years event. After celebration, I heading for migration to Australia. All you Singaporean, please enjoy your GST increase and appreciate PAP's kindness in helping the poor.
Oh, forget about Thaisin loss, I believe PAP will think plan to increase many things more so that you Singaporean learn to appreciate the competency and elite caring face of the government. Gov will never let u down afterall U vote for them and when they implemented policy of PayAndPay, all you Singaporean show appreciation by keeping silence. And Silence is the greatest form of approval that gov required.
Don't worry about your job, the FT will take care of that. And don't worry your mortage too, the bank will take care of it when you cannot pay up. And don't worry about your kid too, your kid will "take care" of u when you old. And don't worry about taking money out from CPF, because beloved gov want you to work until "expired". Don't worry too much, because eventually gov will take care of you, and they will even send some dancing clown to entertain u.
Don't worry about "terrorist" because they are already here since 40 years ago running the country with terror. And please send regard to Nathan, our prata making president who I highly respected for his ability to wayang and still get large pay beyond the dream of Singaporean.
And thank you, Redbean, for this blog and forum that everyone can share "their dream and visions, idealism".
Now, time to head for MRT track...
haha
And for those standing in MRT track. Be patient and don't worry about the train coming. When it comes, it comes and u never have worries again.
From screwup
hi anonymous and screwup,
welcome to the blog.
in principle gst is regressive. i fully agree. that's why i keep telling people even unborn babies and jobless ah pek also pay gst. believe me, it is true. not joking this time.
the 2% increase in bad if it is what it is. that is why i commented about the straw that breaks the camel's back.
but hsien loong said this gst increase is different, or the objectives are different. let's give him the benefit of the doubt and monitor to see if the gst is indeed for his stated objectives, 1, to make life better for the lower income group 2, to close the income gap.
now how would these ever happen? i don't believe him either. but i am prepared to be happy for the moment and treat it as a fairy tale until the fine details are out. then only it is fair to judge. for the moment, everyone has reservations, some very strong some full of doubts.
and don't be a jumper so fast lah. if this fairy tale is just fairy tale, you won't have the chance to jump. you will have to take a queue number.
Redbean,
We have been fairy-taled all along. Everytime, they always give lame excuse such as terrorist, globalization, competitiveness, rising cost, blah and blah factors as an excuse for their incompetency and incapabiities. They say that other countries face the same problem, but strangely, other countries leaders don't have the same pay as our leaders, only a fraction of them. When it comes to problems, they say the same, but when it come to money and democracy, PAP says it is different. Redbean, PAP has treating us like a fool for a long time. LKY say it takes decades for leader to become wise. What a lame excuse and insulting excuse to intelligence of Singapore. Such a excuse is acceptable because the emperor of Singapore say so and just because he say so. In real world, try telling that to your boss, and your boss ask u to "move on" "fuck off" and disappear. But this oldman and his elite family say move on, and then profit from us. Next time, if we have with authority, we will force them to move to their grave la.
This founder of Singapore is bogus founder who self-proclaim he found Singapore, and I think it is BS because at that time, he already control the media to focus on him and him only. The rest of the ppl contributed more than him but been discredit by him.
Yes, everytime someone mention LKY, LHL, HoJInx, I always fart.
PAP always says things are different. When they fail, they says is different just like thaisin shin corpse. When they lose money, they say it is different. And I do agree that PAP is different from others, because this PAP keep giving craps, BS and insult to Singaporean's intelligent. What PAP is educated moron and idiot so that PAP can BS ppl.
i empathise with your feelings. but if singaporeans don't mind being led, not much can be done. it is like those minorities in en bloc sales. just too bad
or like the minorities in malaysia. once you give your vote to some one, the elected will rule. same as america. this is democracy. sometimes i wonder what is truth?
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