Speech During MP's Dialogue Session by Lim Bak Chuan on GST Increase

Good evening, Residents of Potong Pasir, Ladies & Gentlemen, the MP of Potong Pasir Constituency’s Mr. Chiam See Tong, fellow members of SPP, SJP & PKMS, supporters, friends from the media and Mr. Lee Hock Huat for his introduction.

Thank you for your presence.

In a moment, we will be able to listen to everyone views on the increase of GST and we would also like to take this opportunity to state our Party’s stand.

Firstly, let me begin by asking you a few questions;

Is the GST 2% increase, an increase of 40% of the current 5 % GST?
Is the GST increase, without any exempting of essential items, such as Healthcare, Education, Rice, Salts, & Sugars etc. an increase of financial burden to the middle & lower income family?
Will the increase of GST, widen the income gap between the rich & the poor and cause an increase in poverty?.

Now, as you sit here listening to me and my colleagues, you may wonder how you are going to make your voice heard by the Government. However, your awareness tells you that you will be heard, only if you allow yourself to participate actively in this dialog session and share your views with your MP and you begin to notice as it is happening now.

The Government has claimed that the increase is necessary and unavoidable, as the intentions is to provide more safety net, close up the gap between the poor & the rich and to help the poor. It also serves the purpose of having more revenue and attracts more investment etc.

However, we do not agree with the justifications given by the Government and we are against any increase in the GST.

While you are now thinking of the justification given, we believe you agreed with us that there are many innovative ways to help the poor and to close up the gap between the poor & the rich and provide more social safety nets.

One of the justifications given by the Government is that the increase is to help the poor.

Do you realize, the increase of GST, is like asking us to consume foods that are contaminated and make us vomit more then our intake (the income & financial assistance are always insufficient to cope with the ever increasing cost of living).

And then the Government will say; here is the medicine and take it all at one dosage. However, no doctors will ever recommend that you take all yours medicine in one dosage.

As you would have agreed, even when we are treated; we still get dehydrated after vomiting. Therefore, to tax the poor and help the poor will make the poor even poorer.

You know how importance it is to have this kind of dialog session. Through this exercise, we want the Government to know that we want hygiene foods to enjoy, without having worry about taking medicine thereafter.

We are concerned that alternative solutions are not been explore. We believed that there are many innovative solutions. The Government can re-look into their planning and spending pattern, stop or reduce assistance to our neighbouring countries and start to focus on the need of our own people.

Let me quote from yesterday Strait Times forum wrote to Mr. Joseph Chong Thiam Fook; “Not including Government land sales in Budget calculations as part of operating revenue is an economic distortion. The impending two-point hike in GST will raise an additional $1.5 billion in revenue but data from the Ministry of Finance website shows that proceeds from land sales are excess of this amount. At $4 billion per annum, revenue from land sales is about 2 percent of GDP or about 14 percent of Government expenditure. Ignoring the value of land sales is like a household with an income of $100,000 per annum refusing to bank $14,000 cheque”.

If this would have been done, you would have agreed with me that the increase of GST is not necessary at this moment.

If you can also recall, during the last election, I mentioned that the GST will be increased. This is nothing new because after every election, the Government allows prices to increase, whether is bus fare, GST or Town Council fees etc.

In the last election campaign, I had proposed, that “if there is any increase in GST, it should be lock-on to provide free basic health care for all citizens”. And we believe it is affordable and comfortable for the Government to do so.

When the current 5% GST collection, the taxman collected more than $3 billions and with the increase of 2%, and will likely to exceed $4 billions bench mark. If others taxes collections are included, it is likely to exceed $20 billions in one year collection.

If the Government claims that the collection and saving is not significant and will not be sufficient to provide the safety net and an increase is a must.

We would like the Government to justify on their budgetary and spending on national programs to our MP.

We will like to propose to the Government, the humanitarian ways of helping the poor that without the need to increase the GST.

To tax the rich to help the poor and not tax the poor to help the poor.
To scrap the idea of lighting up the City skyline
Put various departments that are from same Ministry under one roof
Cut down Government expenditure
Stop or reduce assistance to neighbouring countries
Stop spending too much money on fireworks
Tax collection from IR, to be only use for helping the poor
Optimize the land usage and release it to private for development
Last but not least, exempt essential items that are necessary for our daily life from the GST.

We would also like to remind the ruling’s Party that it is about time to restore the employer's CPF contribution to a level it was before and seriously consider our proposal and freeze the increase of GST.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully
Lim Bak Chuan, Desmond
Assistant Secretary General for SPP & SDA
Advisor to Potong Pasir Town Council

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Speech During MP's Dialogue Session by Lim Bak Chuan on GST Increase