This year's budget is more geared towards the lower income groups. Middle income is squeezed again, as usual. More focus on local SMEs this time.
Some things that caught my eye:
PSEA Top-ups
CPF Life L-Bonus. More information on CPF Life here.
Medisave Top-ups
Growth Dividends for all Singaporeans
Diploma Bursary
University Bursary
Removal of Estate Duty
Income Tax Rebate of 20% (max $2,000) for all resident taxpayers for YA2008
4 comments:
Didn't the government just raised the annual value of HDB flats?
If so, a conspiracy theorist would think that the move was to pre-empt having to pay out too much to "help" Singaporeans!
I do not think the rise in annual value will translate to alot of property tax for the government.
However, what I do not understand is the government stubbornness to prevent a budget deficit even though its almost certain that the economy will slowdown, and inflation is going up. Translated. Stagflation...
It seems that the government would rather let us "suffer" the stagflation than to have a budget deficit. If the signs are there, a proactive government would quickly move in to allay some fears.
The question is what on earth is all that reserves for? Like scrooge mcduck? For them to count??
At least they did not cut the income tax.
I am actually trying to find some information on a range of countries and was curious about some statistics I found on Singapore. I used to live there many years ago also so was a bit surprised also. The Public Debt to GDP (as a %) is close to %100 isn't that awfully high, especially compared with other countries in the region. I know this number is not taking into account the currency reserves. Is this real? Or is it more of an accounting thing.
Singapore's interest rate is so low. Even now, our T-Bills is much lesser than 1%. With such cheap funding, and huge reserves at the back, there's no need to worry about the public debt.
Our savings interest rate is only 0.25%.
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