The government is often claiming that it has been subsidizing the public housing or other essential services.
Is this claim truthful or supported by facts? Has it been subsidizing essential services from the taxes like in housing, medical care, education or utilities.
Despite averaging of at least S$2 billions of profits per year from profiteering departments like URA, SLA, HDB, LTA and JTC and all the GLCs etc which are not disclosed even in annual budget or accounts of government, during proposals to increase taxes there is no hesitation in increasing taxes at the drop of the hat with making of all the false claims about deficits or impending deficits.
Many a times while the government increased taxes on the assumption of expecting deficits it only turned out to the making profits or surpluses instead.
Many taxes like the vehicle excise duty, COE, ERP and petrol taxes double or triple taxation for the same purposes. The petrol tax should have been scrapped long ago with the introduction of increases in vehicle excise duty, COE or ERP. Stamp duty on property should have been scrapped once the development charge is increased.
In addition all the lands and infrastructures were financed by citizens' taxation and therefore owned by the taxpayers but these lands were charged again at full market prices by HDB making double profits at the expense of citizens even for provisions of essential services like housing and medical care etc.
With all such huge profits made year after year by all the departments and GLCs government is sucking up big monies from the people every year but when it comes to reducing double charges and other fees the government is taking ages to make even the slightest concession with uttering of hypocrisy like no welfare and no subsidy.
Coming to think of it has the government made any subsidy at all for any services since it is making so much profits on lands and infrastructures etc.
It should simply stop telling lies about subsidy (As Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan is suggesting where he was announcing approval of some assistance schemes to the needy to the CCC as reported in Straits Times on 3.12.2007)
If the government does not over-spend on the rewards for their elite MPs, Ministers and CEOs we the people would not today have to face the plight in making ends meet every month even for families which are earning more than $2,000 pm.
Will the scholars and the post-65 MPs please take note and do something to stop all such hypocrisy?
In the first place, WHO on this small piece of Sacred Land, are allowed to chek or even question them on matters of Integrity & Ethics??
Would they even allow the public to Audit them????
As far as I know, they only allow us to either ASSUME what they stand for...