Tan Kin Lian - Perspectives GST should be totally scrapped
I have been totally against GST, which is a value added tax, for the past four decades. It imposes a heavy administrative burden on businesses and add to their operating cost. Worse, it is an unnecessary tax, as Singapore has other sources of tax revenue.

Some people think that the burden on the people should be reduced by lowering the rate of tax, or by exempting certain essential items from GST.

This does not help.

If certain items attract a lower rate of tax or are exempted, the administrative burden and cost will increase considerably.

My main objection is that GST is unnecessary for Singapore. Singapore already has tax revenues that are not available to the governments of other countries.

These revenues are the sale of land and vehicle tax, such as COE and ERP charges. Thse are huge sources of revenues for the Singapore government.

I estimate the revenue from the sale of land to private developers and to the HDB on public housing to be between $20 billion and $30 billion a year. This is my estimate, because figures are not readily available.

This revenue is more than the GST revenue is about $15 billion. It does not appear in the government budget because it is accounted separately, i.e. hidden, in the national reserve accounting. This method of accounting does not accord with normal accounting practices.

If there is a need for additional revenue, and I think that this is not necessary, it can be better achieved through specific taxes on luxury items, rather than a general tax on all spending, most of which are on essential items.

Actually, Singapore already imposes a heavy tax on luxury items, such as stamp duty on property purchases, vehicle tax, COE, tax on liquor and cigarettes, tax on water and electricity, etc.

To be impactful in reducing the cost of living, the GST should be totally abolished. It does not help much to reduce the rate of tax or to exempt essential items, as the administrative cost of GST remains.

To summarise:

a) GST adds a heavy administrative cost to businesses
b) GST is not necessary as the government has other sources of revenue that are more than adequate.
c) GST increase the cost of living and is a burden to the common people.

Tan Kin Lim Lian Chin William

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