The problem of GST offsets

• kilua

  16 Feb 07, 14:34

  
  
  The GST credits are given to help the poor so that they do not feel the impact of the increase in GST.
  
  However the payment is given on the assumption that prices would only increase
  by 2% after the GST hike. In reality, retailers and services charge more.
  
  $250 is only about $20 per month. There should be some form of tracking of the lower income group to ensure their expenses do not increase by more than $20 after the GST increase. (say based on a $1000 income)
• shade343

  16 Feb 07, 15:20

  Simple. You dont buy from the retailers who charges more. Boycott them.
• kilua

  16 Feb 07, 15:43

  yeah but some you cant boycott... Like stamps... you cant deliver yourself... or if all the coffeeshop raise the price of coffee, i dont theink most people would make their own coffee if the coffeeshop charges more than 2%.
  
  What i am suggesting is to do some post GST tracking to see how in reality costs really measure up.
  
  
• (human)

  16 Feb 07, 16:30

  "The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it." -Albert einstein
  
  Lets petition or maybe protest. Like it or not, justify or not justify they are carrying out policies that are making people suffer. What's the use of boycott this and boycott that. The root of the problem lies with the lovers of gain.
  
  Action speaks louder than words, lets do it. Spread it to your friends, relative and everyone you know.
  
  To: Singapore Government
  We, citizens of Singapore and concerned individuals, STAUNCHLY OPPOSE the impending 40% increase in GST to 7%. We see *NO JUSTIFICATION* for this increase.
  
  The increase will greatly burden both ordinary Singaporeans and businesses. It will only drive up the cost of living and business costs at a time when more than 40% of the households in Singapore cannot even make ends meet; CPF contribution rates by employers are being reduced; ordinary Singaporeans' real income is still deteriorating; fees, tariffs and fares are high and still being arbitrarily increased; and domestic businesses are suffering from Singaporeans' low purchasing power. More Singaporeans would be driven to commit suicide!
  
  The Prime Minister claims that the increase is needed to help the poor. We find this excuse laughable and insulting to our intelligence for the following reasons:
  
  1. Singapore has the highest foreign reserve per capita.
  2. Temasek and GIC claim that they are generating double digit percentage return annually.
  3. The government reports awesome budget surpluses year after year and even during the supposedly lean years.
  4. Hundreds of millions in scholarships and other subsidies have been given freely to foreigners annually.
  5. Singapore does not have any meaningful social welfare to begin with.
  6. Singapore has the best paid ministers and elite civil servants in the world.
  
  Surely, the government should have enough loose change and are expected to be ingenious enough to help the poor without having to resort to increasing the 'poor man's tax' by a whopping 40%. Many other countries are able to provide comprehensive welfare to their citizens without having to impose GST or by imposing only low GST. For example, Japan's GST is only 5% and social welfare is but excellent. If the government is sincere in helping the poor, it can do so by *lowering* or *exempting* GST on raw food, medicine and other essential items like what many other countries have done for a long time.
  
  As such, we can only conclude that the proposed increase in GST is self-serving in nature or meant to make Singaporeans shoulder Temasek's and GIC's huge overseas invesment losses.
  
  We refuse to accept any increase in the GST.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  http://www.petitiononline.com/GST7/petition.html
  
  
• blueheeler

  16 Feb 07, 16:42

  it surely sounds great that the govt's offset package for a family is more than what that family pays due to the extra 2% GST.
  
  However, there's a problem. Let's assume that the average family spends an extra $40/month on the 2% GST rise. The govt then gives this family a GST offest amount of $600, which is $120 more than what the family would have spent. However, the govt would disperse this to the family in 1 or 2 payments, and I find this problematic.
  
  By right, this family would have to save this lumpsum, and then use it monthly to offset their higher GST spendings. But because of our greedy human nature, this lumpsum would be inevitable seen as a 'windfall', and the family might blow the $600 on a holiday, or seafood dinner, or a new sofa (i.e. the lumpsum amount is spent NOT for making up their expenditure shaortfall caused by the GST).
  
  So, at the end of the day, the family has a nice holiday, but they would still have to fork out more of their own money on GST.