Thursday, May 12, 2011

GST is unnecessary and bad

I have been against GST since its implementation. It is unnecessary and bad for Singapore. Here are my reasons.

a) There is no need to get revenue from GST in the first place. Unlike Western countries, Singapore does not provide much in welfare benefits, e.g. old age pension or unemployment benefit.
b) The Government already collect a lot of money from ERP, COE, land sale and foreign worker's levy.

So, the government does not really need this source of revenue. The introduction of GST (from 3%, 5% to 7%) has resulted in increase in the cost of living and added additional cost in compliance and collection. This also increased the cost of doing business.

I need your help to do some research for me, as follow:

a) How much is the GST collected in each year, and also the government surplus? (This will show that GST revenue is NOT necessary for Singapore)
b) Average income in Singapore and the number of taxpayers that earn above $100,000 and $500,000 a year.

I wish to write a paper to argue that GST should be scrapped entirely (and not just removed for essential items, or to reduce to 3% - as suggested by some opposition parties).

Tan Kin Lian
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3 comments:

I-Chun said...

Hi Mr Tan,

You can find GST collected from 2003 to 2010 here: http://www.customs.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/238D48DF-D429-4E58-8E8F-DF2FE81FFD3C/27778/YearlyWebstatsFY03FY11.pdf

For a start, I hope that GST can be exempted for essential items (especially healthcare).

May 12, 2011 10:31 AM
yujuan said...

GST is a consumption tax that will
increase over the years, and it is not fair to be imposed on basic food products and healthcare.
The Finance Minister said no intention for this tax to go up for at least the next five years, meaning it will increase after that,
probably to 10% on top of the ever
increasing healthcare costs. So you could die, but could not get sick.
Of course to this highest paid Finance Minister in the world, he would have no problem with GST.
He can say whatever he likes, what does he care about lower mortals like us. Citizens must make him hold on to his promise for the next five years.

May 12, 2011 9:57 PM
Unknown said...

You should not be writing a paper to argue that GST should be scrapped entirely. That would be putting the conclusion before the analysis.

You should be looking at (1) how much revenue the Government needs and (2) how best to collect that revenue.

As an example of how looking at (1) can change things, what if the GST is used entirely towards covering everyone for Medishield and strengthening Medifund?

As an example of how looking at (2) can change things, why should GST be cut instead of, say, reducing the price charged to HDB for land?

May 13, 2011 12:36 AM

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