Singapore People's Party's (SPP) response to Budget 2014

SPP.org.sg, 24 Feb 2014
Going beyond GST vouchers
There is nothing new with the GST vouchers – we have them almost every year. While this is a good initiative, the SPP feels that at this point in the evolution of the socio-economic needs of Singaporeans, the government must take a step to go beyond subsidies and small-scale redistribution of money.
Instead the SPP feels that it is the government’s accountability to its people must be based on the following indicators:

• the percentage of Singaporeans employed in newly created jobs;
• the median pay of Singaporeans versus our foreign counterparts;
• what incentives are in place to motivate companies to help meet the indicators above.

Going beyond acronyms
Every year, the government introduces many new initiatives that are accompanied by a slew of acronyms. This year, there is “iSPRINT”, “IPG” and many more interesting names. Besides them being easy to remember, these names need to go beyond that. We need to look closely and examine the follow-through of these initiatives. We need to know if they have been successful or not in terms of what they set our to achieve. We cannot coin new acronyms annually on to be forgotten in the end.
For example, a few months ago, it was announced that more than $400 million was to be set aside for the Future of Manufacturing initiative. The SPP would like to know what is the outcome of such exciting initiatives rather than to see new initiatives being introduced.  Full story

OPINION: The $8 Billion Con Job

Singapore Notes, 24 Feb 2014
The local paper (now ranked 150th by Reporters Without Borders) made like the FY2014 budget is in deficit to the tune of $1.16b because of the $8b boondoggle for the Pioneer Generation Package (PGP). The last time Singapore ran a deficit was in 2009 at the height of the global financial meltdown, "this year the short fall is aimed at helping the needy and elderly". Let's get the facts straight.
Half of the money is expected to be expended over the next 10 years, after which the rest of the 450,000 eligible seniors (this number is also up for debate) who are still alive will be facing other challenges - higher Goods and Services Taxes (GST), train fares, utility charges, town council tariffs, etc. You were thinking perhaps $8b divided by 450,000?
Although the Finance Minister made the announcement in February, the goodies will trickle in at a snail's pace. Additional subsidies for specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs) and polyclinics kick in only in September. Subsidies for Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS) at general practitioners (GPs) and dental clinics will be available only in January 2015. Subsidies for MediShield Life premiums won't be seen until late 2015, or later. Before you even know it, 2014 will be over, and a few of the qualifying seniors would have kicked the bucket, without benefiting a cent from the "move which honours generation who built nation". There are no subsidies for burial or cremation expenses. Full story

NSP calls for lower GST, higher taxes for wealthy

Yahoo! News Singapore, 21 Mar 2013

Lower the Government Service Tax (GST) to 5.5 per cent and increase taxes on the wealthy earning above S$500,000.
Those are among the National Solidarity Party’s key recommendations in response to the Singapore Budget 2013 that was debated in parliament last week.
In its own post-Budget discussion held at the NSP headquarters along Jalan Besar on Wednesday evening, NSP asked that more tax restructuring fine-tuning be made. Full story

OPINION: Will Singapore 2013 Budget Promote ‘Inclusive Society'?

Global Voice Online, 17 Mar 2013
Marketdecoder presents a succinct summary of the budget which critics say is infused with populist programs. Meanwhile, Roy takes a step back and examines the macro-political impact of these giveaways. He says:

"The other way to look at Budget 2013 is to look at it as a corrective budget. … Budget 2013 is the start of a series of evolutionary budgets which will be aimed at correcting the missteps by the Singapore government of the economy over the past 10 years or so."

 Full story

OPINION: The "Robin Hood" budget - Seah Chiang Nee

Malaysia Star, 2 Mar 2013
BUDGET times are not occasions when the thrifty government here would likely score a lot of brownie points among its citizens. In fact, Singaporeans are often more worried about being made to pay more fees and levies than to be able to receive goodies.
However, Budget 2013 last week was a surprising exception. It has allowed the government to regain a little ground lost through unpopular policies poorly implemented – including excessive immigration, spiralling prices and a worsening rich-poor gap.
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam became the man of the hour when he increased taxes for the rich to be used on the needy and middle class. Full story

Related:
Budget with changes in the right direction.....several years late! - Diary of A Singaporean Mind

Singapore Avoids Stimulus as Minister Acts on Bubble Risk

Bloomberg, 1 Mar 2013
Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said there’s no need for monetary stimulus in a country with full employment, leaving policy makers reliant on unorthodox tools to prevent asset bubbles.
“We don’t have an output gap, and evidence of that is in an extremely tight labor market,” Shanmugaratnam, 56, said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Haslinda Amin yesterday. “In that context basically, you can’t have an easy monetary policy, which in our case is an exchange-rate policy.”   Full story

SDP's response to Budget 2013

Yoursdp.org, 26 Feb 2013
While the 2013 Budget attempts to address systemic problems that ail the nation, it continues to fall short, as with past Budgets, of addressing what Singapore really needs.
The SDP welcomes Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's acknowledgment of the income disparity in Singapore and his effort to tackle the problem through the Wage Credit Scheme (WCS). We note, however, that the Scheme is similar to the Workfare Income Scheme (WIS) in that it pays out to employers to raise wages of workers.
The WIS has shown not to be helpful in achieving its objectives as income inequality in Singapore continues to widen despite it having been in effect since 2007. The Gini coefficient has risen in the last few years and continued to worsen in 2012 (from 0.473 in 2011 to 0.478 in 2012). Full story

Budget looks pro-citizen on the surface, however pro-business stance remains unchanged: experts

CNBC.com, 26 Feb 2013
An increasingly vocal population, said country watchers, could have led the government to announce populist measures such as allotting S$3 billion ($2.4 billion) to improving the quality of the country's pre-school education system over five years.
However, some experts noted while the budget does look more pro-citizen on the surface the government has not dramatically shifted its stance, which is being traditionally pro-business.
"It's a more distributive budget – it was balanced between corporate and individual stakeholders, they had quite a bit for both sides. The ones asking for help such as the lower income groups and SMEs got most of their wish list," said Selina Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at OCBC Bank, referring to the 3-year transitional support scheme to help corporates cope with the labor market restructuring. Full story

OPINION: Singapore’s Populist Budget - Mong Palatino

The Diplomat, 29 Feb 2012
Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party, which has been in power since the 1950s, has been accused of populism by its critics following the presentation of the 2012 state budget. According to the opposition, the budget contains several expenditure items that reflect the desperation of the PAP to regain the trust of voters and party supporters who have expressed dissatisfaction with its traditional brand of leadership. Full story

Reactions to the Proposed 2012 Budget

Global Voices Online, 27 Feb 2012
Musings from the Lion City criticizes the proposed budget and calls it “The Redundant Budget”

"The title I would give to this budget is “The Redundant Budget”. As many of you would probably had guessed, I find several things in the new budget to be redundant.
It is as if the Singapore government knows what is needed by Singaporeans but is unsure how much to push to give the benefits needed by the disadvantaged. So the budget is filled with half-hearted measures that don’t do enough."

Full story

Mixed reactions on Budget 2012

Yahoo! News Singapore, 18 Feb 2012
The announcement of Budget 2012 has received mixed responses from Singaporeans.
Sulaiman Daud, a Mass Communications undergraduate thinks that the schemes and incentives introduced by the Budget are “reactionary instead of seeking to prevent problems from happening in the first place”.
The 24-year-old also questioned why needy students were not addressed in the Budget, saying that “all our fees are increasing … [and we have a] lack of accommodation”. Full story

Votes forced Singapore government to shifts priority from growth to income inequality

BusinessWeek, 17 Feb 2012
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has moved to address public discontent over rising prices and an influx of foreigners after his ruling party suffered its smallest electoral win since independence in 1965. Measures announced yesterday to tighten the inflow of foreigners follow similar steps taken in the past two years which have increased the cost of hiring overseas workers at hotels, offices, factories and construction sites.
Singapore, ranked by the World Bank as the easiest place to do business, has cut taxes in recent years to spur investment, prompting companies to hire hundreds of thousands of people from overseas. Foreigners and permanent residents make up more than a third of the nation’s 5.2 million-strong population and opposition parties have said that the large numbers of overseas laborers have depressed local wages. Full story

OPINION: Budget 2012 round-up

Yahoo! News Singapore, 18 Feb 2012
The Singapore government unveiled a "Budget For the Future" that will reduce the dependance on foreign workers and do more to build a stronger, more inclusive Singapore.
At the same time, the Budget contained a slew of new economic and social measures targeted to help specific groups such as older workers stay in the workforce longer, senior citizens, lower-income and special needs Singaporeans, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the transport and tourism sector. Full story

OPINION: Budget 2012 - How can we trust the government?

Singapore Democrats, 17 Feb 2012
At the core of Singapore's economy is the participation of foreign workers. Former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has said that without such guest workers, our economy would collapse. Additionally, he indicated that in 2010 “we've grown in the last five years by just importing labour." (emphasis added)
Given such a scenario, it is to be expected that Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, in releasing the 2012 Budget, has focused on the subject of foreign workers and the issue of productivity. Sadly, however, he has said nothing new. Full story

Singapore's budget to aid SMEs, silver generation

ZDNet Asia, 17 Feb 2012
SINGAPORE--Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and older workers are main beneficiaries of the country's 2012 budget, which was formulated to restructure and upgrade the local economy while building an "inclusive society".
Revealed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Friday, this year's budget showed that Singapore's economy expanded by 4.9 percent in 2011. This figure was within the 4 percent to 6 percent range projected last year, he noted. Full story

Singapore seeks to reduce reliance on foreign workers with new budget

Xinhua, 17 Feb 2012
In the first budget speech since a watershed general election in May last year, Tharman announced that the maximum number of foreign workers that manufacturing firms can hire will be reduced to no more than 60 percent of their total workforce from 65 percent previously.
Companies in the services sector now can rely on foreign labor for no more than 45 percent of their total workforce, compared with 50 percent previously.
An estimated 500 manufacturing companies and 8,500 service companies should be affected by the changes. Full story

Related:
Singapore aims to stem rise in foreign workers, help poor - Reuters
Singapore Lifts Aid for Poor as Budget Curbs Foreign Workers - BusinessWeek
Singapore to reduce migrant worker intake - Australia Network News

VIDEO: Opposition party's "Shadow Budget' 2011

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Singapore expects overall FY2011/12 budget surplus of S$100m

Intellasia.net, 21 Feb 2011
Singapore expects to post an overall budget surplus of S$100 million for the coming financial year ending March 31, 2012, helped by investment returns of about S$7.8 billion , Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said on Friday.
The government sees a basic deficit of S$2.2 billion, or about 0.7 percent of gross domestic product, slightly smaller than the FY2010/11 basic deficit of 0.8 percent of GDP. Full story

Related:
Singapore Budget 2011 - Live Trading News

Singapore Budget Filled with Handouts Ahead of Elections

CNBC, 18 Feb 2011
Singapore unveiled a budget on Friday filled with handouts for poorer citizens, with an eye on elections that may be called as early as the second quarter.
Measures for the upcoming financial year included a package of benefits for Singaporeans worth S$6.6 billion ($5.2 billion), as well as lower income taxes for all middle-income families in the city-state, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament in his budget speech. Full story
Singapore Plans $5.2 Billion Benefits Package for Citizens - MarketWatch

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Singapore budget filled with handouts ahead of elections - ABS-CBN News
Singapore budget filled with handouts ahead of elections - Business LIVE
Singapore Government To Provide S$6.6 Billion Benefits Package For Citizens - AutomatedTrader
Singapore budget unveils benefit payments - BBC News
Singapore to Spend S$6.6 Billion Ahead of Vote Due in Next Year - BusinessWeek
Singapore budget unveils cash grants, tax cuts - MSN Philippines News
Singapore to help its citizens cope with inflation - Monsters and Critics

Singapore budget targets widening income gap ahead of polls

Forexyard, 18 Feb 2011
SINGAPORE, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Singapore unveiled a budget on Friday brimming with handouts for poorer citizens, with an eye on elections that are widely expected in the second quarter and the social impact of rapidly rising prices.
Measures for the upcoming financial year included a package of benefits for Singaporeans worth S$6.6 billion ($5.2 billion), as well as lower income taxes for middle-income wage earners, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament in his budget speech. Full story

Related:
Singapore puts budget's focus on narrowing wealth gap - BBC News