The Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong has published a New Year Message which includes how Singapore’s healthcare system was resilient during COVID-19, touching on topics on social and financial affairs.
He also touched on topics on how Singapore managed to win two swimming gold medals in Tokyo.
In his message on GST he state:
“We need a vibrant economy to generate the resources to realise these cherished goals. And the government must have reliable and adequate revenues to carry out its social programmes. It needs to raise additional revenues to fund the expansion of our healthcare system and support schemes for older Singaporeans. Those who are better off should contribute a larger share, but everyone needs to shoulder at least a small part of the burden.“
“This is the rationale for raising a broad-based tax like the GST, coupled with a comprehensive scheme of offsets to cushion the impact on lower income households. The GST forms one important component of our system of taxes and transfers that also includes income and wealth taxes. Overall, our system will remain progressive and fair.“
Back in 2018, there were already plans to increase the current 7% GST to 9%, this was first announced by Heng Swee Keat’s Budget speech.