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Think its fair and doing it now is the right time.

Cost of living and we as a small nation do not have any natural resources.

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We understand the $/ton increase that Govt has announced. But with uncertain economic outlook, and supply chain problems globally (costs for everything going up), this carbon tax will hit every individual doubly-hard (eg. full tank of petrol for family car has gone from $75, just before 2021 Budget, to $100 last week). Will govt reconsider the 5-time increase in the Carbon Tax to later?

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Session 1 group 3. Exploring Alternative source of energy other than solar, e.g nuclear, hydrogen? Sheau Ming

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Session 1 group 3. Exploring Alternative source of energy other than solar, e.g nuclear, hydrogen? Sheau Ming

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Good structure of budget spending on innovation and sustainability as guilding factor for business transformation, but simply raising minimum salary for foregin talent/workforce may worsen the tight manpower market and increase business operations cost instead of improving the foreign workforce quality. - S1-G1 Luke

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Good structure of budget spending on innovation and sustainability as guilding factor for business transformation, but simply raising minimum salary for foregin talent/workforce may worsen the tight manpower market and increase business operations cost instead of improving the foreign workforce quality. - S1-G1 Luke

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Assurance package cater to poor or rich but the worries is on inflation.

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On the calculations for estimated GST offset period:

Are the calculations made based on the 1% increase of 2023 only or is the 2nd percentage of 2024 factored in as well? Also, with inflation over the coming years, will the offset in real terms be lower than what is estimated?

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Session 1 group 2.

A: why continue to curb foreign lower end work force which will ultimately worsen inflation and prices that consumers need to fork out during these times where utilities, food and etc cost are increasing while wages remain flat?

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Encourage businesses to train locals in digitalisation is important so more benefits could given to smes that train locals

CT

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Quite a fair tax system where if you earn more, you inevitably have to pay more. Similarly the tax increase for non-owner occupied taxes are increased on the extra property owned. GST increase has been halted for some time and fair to have the marginal increase.

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Quite a fair tax system where if you earn more, you inevitably have to pay more. Similarly the tax increase for non-owner occupied taxes are increased on the extra property owned. GST increase has been halted for some time and fair to have the marginal increase.

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S1 Group 5

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Strengthen digital capabilities is important but it takes time to slowly digitalise, so funding should be spread out over years not at the start or end of each project

simon

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Young Singaporeans dont want to work non-aircon jobs. They want to drive company vehicle home and they want flexi working hours. This forces SME's to hire FW to replenish the ranks, which in turn causes Singaporeans to grumble that FW are taking their jobs. Dirty and hot jobs, locals dont want to take. Current ratio is 6 Singaporeans to 1 foreign worker. Certain Government measures are good, but it doesnt include all sectors. JGI and Skills Future is good as it allows greater flexibility for locals to upgrade and remain relevant.
SL

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Most lower income families will feel the impact of the GST hike, be it 1% (8%) increase in 2023 & another 1%(9%) in 2024.
How much more help can be given to these group as inflation will most likely hit them hard overtime.

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S1 - Group 4

I am ok with the GST!
Medical n Education will be waived!…

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Session 1 - Group 2: Felix

The assurance package has a good coverage for all the age and income groups of Singaporeans. Comparing to the GST increase, the record high inflation rate (4% in Jan 2022) is more challenging for Singapore Household. I hope government can take inflation into consideration.

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Help given to business especially to the SMEs is important and good as it provide jobs and incomes but the main concern is will the employees get the incentives given by the Government as is given to the employers. The increase in minimum wage is also good as the lower income needs financial help at this time of the crisis. Overall Government is doing a good job helping the businesses to 'keep afloat' at this time

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S1 g5 ,,,,the GST 9%  is ok Because Government also got rebate 🙏 AmyYap 

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S1 g5 ,,,,the GST 9%  is ok Because Government also got rebate 🙏 AmyYap 

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The packages announced are very fair and generous — but in relation to GST increase. However all of this will be negated by Carbon Tax increase, and families will suffer the impact of costs passed down by businesses.

Will govt reconsider the timing of the implementation of the sustainability tax increase? Or perhaps roll bsck some of the specific taxes (eg. tax on each liter of petrol, as my family car’s petrol costs has gone up by 33% since just before 2021 Budget)

- Ankur

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I used to fully support the tight controls on foreigners. But in light of post-Covid, Singapore is trying to beat HK and others in the global competition for talent. Then we shouldn’t increase S pass threshold across the board — why didn’t MOF consider a tiered approach (similar to normal vs luxury car ARF), to make it easier for firms here to bring in IT and biomedical talent, but control the flow of Finance-side talent?

Ankur
Session 1, Group 5

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The root of companies manpower crunch is not just monetary - its partially what people is willing to work and work life balance. if the money given to companies were regulated to ensure money is provided to workers, perhaps it would help more businesses in the long run as compared to employers holding the cash.

past companies may not have distributed money to employees.

skills future is good, work study program is very effective. Rather than singular courses which may not be very effective in vouching for ability, programs that allow employees to gather work experience in a new industry would be helpful.

what denotes a sector that is affected? Some may not be very apparent.

what denotes innovative enterprises in Singapore? how successful are current schools assessment on good enterprises? perhaps enterprises should be industry assessed by active players in the market, rather than education systems who may not understand real world problems

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Good that the government is looking into all age groups, income groups n House type in this budget.
For seniors n elderly should not based on the annual value to determine the pay out.

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Generally the package caters to vast majority. However, we are now feeling the pinch of high inflation - increase in food cost, dining, electricity bills and coming taxi fare hike. This will have much significant impact on everybody

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Why not exempt certain items from gst increase? - john

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Why not exempt certain items from gst increase? - john

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1. Income tax: Right direction to increase taxes at the top tier with no impact to the majority. Though the impact (ie additional tax collected) is relatively small
2. GST would add ~$3b per annum to the tax revenues and still remains internationally competitive
3. Property and vehicles increases are fine, though (probably) will make marginal difference to the $100b budget

Overall: quite good

Vijay

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Session 1 group 3. Please help explain some of the incentives for MNC to come to Singapore to do manufacturing in Singapore. E.g Life Sciences 

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Session 1 group 3. Please help explain some of the incentives for MNC to come to Singapore to do manufacturing in Singapore. E.g Life Sciences 

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appreciate that the gov is trying to make it easy for the masses- focusing on taxing the richest and helping the poorest. but what about those who have more cash in hand than most but are in gov housing, do they get the best of both worlds?

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In this year budget, the various tax proposed will help the government to build reserves to overcome major issues that we might face in the future. As the taxes proposed affect mainly the wealthy, is good that share their a small portion of their wealth with the lower income group.

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The financial impact of raising carbon tax on household is still not clear. Is there a chance to give some examples so we can understand better?
- Felix

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Carbon increase from 5 to 25 in 3 years is too much too fast. i.e 5X more. Can increase, but be more gentle.

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Carbon increase from 5 to 25 in 3 years is too much too fast. i.e 5X more. Can increase, but be more gentle.

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The gov has set a fair strategies to increase taxes
1. The instability of world economy can be more impactful other than covid as now the war between Ukraine and Russia the world biggest production of gas and oil has started.
2. The longevity of the elderly has prevail that would also added another impact for the cost of living affecting economy
3. Can the gov be more flexible in a small business enterprise for the musician. Since covid many of them has been lay off to perform with the stringent of SMM, cause serious impact with no income as this are their skill set. It’s more than easy as for them to take up new job and that depends if they can be employable. They should be allowed to perform on stage with mask on except for the singer mask off. The audience should be mask on depend on the capacity on the no of audience as the law can be regulated.