Dishonest practice of auto-renewal

 Many news websites have a dishonest practice of auto-renewal.
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Verified profiles

The authority in each country should set up a database of verified profiles for posting and commenting in social media. 

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Singapore people pays too much taxes

 The people of Singapore have to pay many layers of direct and indirect taxes.

The direct taxes are income tax, goods and services tax, vehicle taxes (including COE, road tax, petrol tax, parking fees and ERP), levy on foreign maids, taxes on liquor, tobacco, gambling and stamp duties.

Some of these taxes, such as COE and stamp duty on properties are big ticket items.

The indirect taxes are the low interest rate paid on Central Provident Fund savings (where the excess earnings become revenue to the government) and the high cost of housing (where a large part of the cost is revenue to the government).

The sale of state land is another large source of revenue to the government but it is accounted separately.

The government collects more revenue than is needed to provide the public goods. It generates a large surplus in most years, which are transferred to the national reserves or to various endowment funds (which are difficult to keep track of).

The alternative to generating a large surplus is to reduce the tax burden and lower the cost of living borne by the people.

Some of the government spending are unnecessary (such as the $550 million on ERP 2.0) or excessive (such as the very high salaries paid to political office holders). There are many other examples that have been quoted elsewhere

As the ordinary people struggle with the high cost of living, they should send a strong message in the coming general election that they want this important bread and butter issue to be addressed at its root cause.

Tan Kin Lian

Look beyond personal circumstances

 There are many people, especially among the better educated, who have accumulated some wealth over the past decades, and could comfortably afford the high cost of living today. I belong to this group.

However, I look beyond my personal circumstances and worry about the large numbers of people in our society, who have not accumulated sufficient savings and wealth, and cannot afford the high cost of living.

I also worry for the future generations who will not have the opportunities available to the earlier generation.

It is important that we elect a government that will address the root cause of the high cost of living, instead of giving small amounts of various vouchers that are inadequate and costly to administer.

Tan Kin Lian