A netizen spent $1,149 on a brand new 55-inch Samsung TV at Mustafa Centre, as well as another $500 to ship it to his father in India last August.
However, as of today (more than 15 months later), his television still hasn’t been delivered to his father, according to STOMP.
He said that when he asked the shipping company about it, they kept making excuses and delaying the delivery for the television.
The netizen, Kuras, shared that he has since made a police report about the company, and lamented how he lost $1,149 and the shipment fee of $500.
He added that he wasn’t the only one, with other victims coming forward and forming a Whatsapp group.
The Singapore Police Force also confirmed that a police report has been lodged against Tamilan Express Cargo & Logistics, at 6 Cuff Road in Little India.
Suppose conservatively, the long term real rate of returns net of inflation for Temasek is 4%.
Since the NIRC allows Singov to spend 50% of the expected long term rate of real return, this means up to 2% may used to supplement Singov budget (and shelter the population from even higher GST).
So 2% of Temasek’s net portfolio value of about S$400 billion would be S$8 billion.
But even if we use a more conservative valuation of Temasek, say based on retained earnings, that is less volatile, we could still be talking about 2% of say S$300 billion, or S$6 billion.
Currently, 7% of GST adds about S$12 billion to our Singov coffers in 2021.
So each 1% of GST adds about S$1.7 billion to our Singov revenue.
So S$6-8 billion of NIRC contribution from Temasek would translate to 3-5% more in GST.
The current 7% GST or S$12 billion revenue is behind corporate income tax revenues of over S$17.5 billion, and personal income tax revenue of S$13.8 billion.
All 3 sources of tax revenue are each less than the NIRC contribution of about S$20 billion.
[Side note:
NIRC contribution for FY2021 was estimated to be S$19.56 billion, and projected to be S$21.6 billion for FY2022.]
Without reserves saved, invested and grown over generations, Sg GST would need to climb to 12% more of GST to make up for the S$20 billion of spending capacity that the NIRC framework has given.
Wow!
And don’t forget!
50% of the GST is paid by tourists and foreign residents of Sg. This is net of refunds for tourists too!
And the top 20% of households by income paid another 20% of the GST revenue. This is kind of proportionately carrying their share of GST, with some support from the foreign households and tourists too.
And 80% of the Singaporean households pay 30% of the GST collection. This works out to be about S$3.6 billion, or equivalent to slightly over 2% of GST, with the balance paid for by foreign households in Sg, and the tourists.
Hence, despite the tourist GST refund scheme for goods that they take out of the country, the bulk of their spending on food, hotels and other services are not refundable.
Hence, all Singapore households, local or foreign, benefit from GST paid by tourists.
Without NIRC contributions from GIC, MAS and Temasek, we would be missing S$20 billion of spending capacity, which must come from corporate income, personal income, or goods & services taxes.
Already, by taking 50% for spending, this means 50% less for reinvestment for more future income.
Let’s not be greedy for more, and kill the golden geese that help us keep our tax burden lower than most countries, other than those who can benefit from oil reserves or other natural resources.
====
Afternote:
I’m not sure if the 80% of households contributing 30% of the GST pie is before or after the GST vouchers for the households.
If it is before, then the 80% of households would have paid an even smaller slice of the GST pie.
An anonymous netizen who works at a childcare centre, shared a couple of paranormal experiences that she faced on the Threads of the Unknown Facebook page, detailing how her students were disturbed by what appears to be a supernatural entity.
Here is what she said
This happened at my workplace a few years ago. I used to work in a childcare centre at the west side of Singapore. For me, these incidents always happen around noon when the childrens get ready for their nap time.
The first incident was when the kids were all lying down on their cots for nap and I was sitting by the teacher’s table overlooking them. One of the kids look at the corner of the room behind me and quickly covered herself with her blanket. She did that a few times and when I asked her why, she said that she was scared. I comforted her and told her that there’s nothing to be worried about and pat her to sleep. A while later I felt the chair at the back of my classroom move from its place. I could see it move from the corner of my eyes. I knew something was not right so I quickly switched on some prayer recitals and nothing happened again for that day.
Another incident that happened was when the kids were lining up to go toilet. Suddenly there was a commotion between the boys who were lining up. When I approached them, they told me that someone has been using the toilet for a long time and hasn’t come out yet. (The toilets are fitted with half length doors for teachers to check in on the kids) When I went to check, I realised that there was no one inside the toilet but it was locked from the inside. I unlocked the door and told the kids to finish up their toileting soon. The kids were all tensed as they shared that it could possibly be a “ghost” that was using the toilet. I had to convince the class that it was probably caused by the lock but deep down I knew that the lock was not faulty and the kids had no way to lock it from the outside. As we were leaving the toilet area, I saw the lid of the bin open and close on its own. It felt as though someone had really used the toilet but we’re just not sure what.
These kind of incidents were common at our school. An ex colleague of ours who is into paranormal stuff did mention that he felt the presence of little children around our school. Although they’re harmless, we were told to just ignore it.
No shadows can be seen, by me that is, but we can hear sounds coming from inside the store room area. We have kids claiming that they see “someone” but we always tell them it’s nothing so they won’t get scared.
I have since left the job a few years back. I hope those who are currently there now are not affected by these occurrences.
[125kg lift, celebrities in Chong Pang, and bursaries]
Joined residents at Chong Pang Fitness Fiesta.
I had said that I will try and break my personal best of 105kg. It was a way of raising awareness for the event, and encouraging more to participate.
I managed to lift 125kg, new personal best.
Many others joined me. One young man lifted 140kg. Two older women took part in the deadlift. Others were trying chin ups, and different exercises. Including seniors.
After the fitness event, I did a walkabout in Chong Pang City. Spotted local celebrities Cavin Soh and Liu Ling Ling at one of the coffeeshops. Took a wefie with them.
Also met some youths practicing Aikido at one of the void decks – many doing different physical activities.
Ended the morning with a bursary award event for over 100 Polytechnic and ITE students. Bright smiles, happy families.
Does having a partner who’s a gamer ever get better?
I (28F) have a bf (27M) who is a gamer. He loves his PC. I understand we all have a vice and I try to respect his personal time. We’ve been together almost 8 years. It never used to be this bad but lately, it’s been so frustrating. For the last year he has probably spent about 45 hours every week on his PC. (He does work full time but he’s usually on it the second he gets home until he goes to bed) He spends 90% of his free time on his PC and if he’s not on it, then he’s watching YouTube on his phone of someone playing the game. I know he truly has an addiction but I think that’s a post for another day.
And I do communicate when we need to spend time together and he always will do a date night but the other 90% of his week he’s on the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love my alone time as well but I am still a productive adult during my day. (We have no kids). I don’t want to feel like a nag but when I have to ask him to do something (like help with dishes or help with groceries) multiple times and I keep getting “yeah give me a few minutes” and over an hours gone by and he hasn’t moved…I feel like the mom to a teenage boy. It’s gross. And every other aspect of our relationship is great! “Love life” is amazing, no trust issues, & we rarely even fight.
My question is: Does it ever get better? Do they ever tone it down as they get older?
A man posted a video on TikTok claiming that he is showing a life hack by endangering himself so that he gets to board the train that was departing at Jurong East.
He used his hand to get trapped between the closing doors so that the train will be forced to reopen.
However, what he did is not only dangerous and irresponsible. For shooting this video he delayed the whole train of passengers.
Full Video Loading…
Here are what netizens think:
Of course, “help” people to board the train but end up have to wait inside the train because you caused a delay which equals to the waiting time for the next train. Come I clap for you
Great, now everyone will be extra late if add 10 seconds every station
Life hack: How to meet god earlier
Now I know why there is announcement time to time that the train at station ahead has “issue”
Once the doors are closed.. the Train captain(TC) will get a green light noti which indicates alll doors are properly closed and locked! If not, The system will give TC a alert that one of the doors are not *PROPERLY CLOSED* hence he will open again in “less than 10 seconds” and he will wait again for 20-30 seconds to close door… Resulting: a Train delay about 30-45 seconds delay AND THIS WILL MAKE DELAY to behind trains upto 3 minutes.
2 possible outcomes: hand gone or helped him and others board the train. Glad it’s the 2nd
Do not do this, saw it happen on other line and there is 1 or 2 min delay, everybody keep staring at that guy
I (45F) have been married to my husband Karl (50M) for nearly 20 years. Karl isn’t the oldest child but the most responsible and he’s always looked after his mother and sister who has two children (now adults) when he was able to.
When we got married, his finances became less available to them and they’ve never gotten over getting less from Karl (i.e. he would buy school shoes for the children but not an entire wardrobe and for her birthday his mom might get $50 instead of $200).
For the record, I never told Karl he should do less. However, we had plans to start a family and wanted to travel more often so he no longer had those extras to give.
My MIL (80F) in particular uses every opportunity to remind me and anyone other than Karl how much he used to do for her.
Most recently, she spoke to our son (14) and told him to tell his dad how much she misses the extra money he sent her especially now that she’s old and might die soon.
My son had the phone on speaker (she was aware because he was getting ready to leave) and I heard it all. I told him to say goodbye to his grandma and tell her I’d call her back.
When he left, I called her and told her not to use our children for her greed and if she wants anything from Karl she better ask him directly, not her grandson.
I reminded her that she gave Karl and me a crinkled up $10 bill as a wedding gift and after all her son has done for her ungrateful self, she shouldn’t expect anything else from him but love and affection.
She started to cry (she should get an Oscar for the fake tears she’s managed to squeeze out through the years) and told me I’m being mean to her.
I told her I’m tired of her whining about money especially when she’s not wanting for anything. Karl thinks I was a bit harsh but he agrees with me.
I (39m) am engaged to Tina (32f). We work in different fields and I make about 15% more than her. When we were dating, we got along so well that we knew we’ll be spending the rest of our lives together. We talked about it often and decided early on to combine our finances when we do get married. Then we got engaged and things fell apart when I discovered the details of her finances.
I’ve always lived a frugal life. I wear ordinary clothes and drive ordinary cars. Tina has always dressed better and drove better cars. It’s been a running joke in our friend group that she’s marrying down. I’ve always laughed and didn’t mind, better she looks amazing, like she just stepped out of a magazine cover.
Now that we’re engaged, we went through our financials in detail. I don’t want to go into too much detail so I’ll be brief. The money that I don’t spend I invest. My assets and investments are roughly 20x of hers and she owes about $50,000 spread over several cards and $75,000 on her new car. If she cash out her investments and retirement, she still wouldn’t have enough to pay off her debt.
I was shocked into silence. I don’t make that much more than her so I always figured our asset levels are close. I never imagined there would be such a wide gap and that doesn’t even include her debt.
After thinking about it for weeks, I finally told Tina the other day that I want to keep our finances separate until she pays off her debt. I don’t want to say, “I do,” and immediately take on $125,000 in debt.
She argued that we always talked about joining our lives and sharing everything and now I’m having doubts. I told her I have no doubts about spending the rest of my life with her, I just don’t want to take on so much debt.
i found out my friends had a group chat where they chat shit about me
i have (had) a group of friends and they were genuinely some of the nicest, funniest, and most entertaining people to be around and last night i found out they had a group chat without me which started because a bunch of them thought i was annoying.
i think everyone is entitled to their own opinion and i don’t think anyone has to like me but i think that if they don’t they should make it clear to me that they have a problem with me.
a lot of them still talked to me like we were really good friends for months. they would respond to my stories, say me and my bf were cute, tell me their own secrets and act like we were friends but now it’s all been thrown away and i feel so shitty because it’s not the first time this kind of thing has happened to me and i don’t think it’s that everyone i meet is a horrible person- it can’t be, but i think i am the problem.
i dont know what i did to them because i was nothing but nice to them and i try to be nothing but nice to people but clearly there’s something in me which makes people dislike me. i’ve been thinking about it all night because i just can’t understand why. (please don’t use this in those stupid gameplay videos on tiktok)
