I gave a speech at Hong Lim Park on 3 March. 2018. My key point was that GST should be abolished to reduce the cost of living by up to 10%.
Some people commented that there is no need to abolish GST totally. We only need to abolish GST on the essential items, like food and medicine.
Many countries, such as UK and Malaysia, exclude GST on essential items. I agree that it is possible to take a step to abolish GST on essential items.
However, I still hold the view that GST should be abolished totally. Here are my reasons:
a) We can afford to abolish GST totally. It reduces the government revenue by $11 billion a year. But the real surplus is $20 to $30 billion a year, including government land sale. If GST is abolished totally, we will still have a budget surplus.
b) If we abolish GST only for essential items, we still have to identify what are essential and what are not essential items. The cost of administering GST will continue to be high. We will not achieve any significant reduction in the cost of living.
We need to be bold. We have to abolish GST totally to achieve a significant reduction in the cost of living.
The problem with our high cost of living and the high cost of doing business, and the insecurity of jobs for locals, are really serious. We cannot afford to take half measures.
Watch my video in full to understand the key points that I put forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vCRavQFYHw&t=1616s
Some people commented that there is no need to abolish GST totally. We only need to abolish GST on the essential items, like food and medicine.
Many countries, such as UK and Malaysia, exclude GST on essential items. I agree that it is possible to take a step to abolish GST on essential items.
However, I still hold the view that GST should be abolished totally. Here are my reasons:
a) We can afford to abolish GST totally. It reduces the government revenue by $11 billion a year. But the real surplus is $20 to $30 billion a year, including government land sale. If GST is abolished totally, we will still have a budget surplus.
b) If we abolish GST only for essential items, we still have to identify what are essential and what are not essential items. The cost of administering GST will continue to be high. We will not achieve any significant reduction in the cost of living.
We need to be bold. We have to abolish GST totally to achieve a significant reduction in the cost of living.
The problem with our high cost of living and the high cost of doing business, and the insecurity of jobs for locals, are really serious. We cannot afford to take half measures.
Watch my video in full to understand the key points that I put forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vCRavQFYHw&t=1616s
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