After covering Parliament for some time, I’ve come to realise it can sometimes seem to be a case of “he said, she said”, when it comes to who seeded an idea that eventually became policy. When someone claims credit for a good idea, others may disagree.
On the second day of the Budget debate on Thursday, Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim said he had suggested in 2022 that the Government beef up the goods and services tax voucher scheme. He had argued then that the duration of offsets would be eroded by inflation.
“We will continue to assess the adequacy of the Assurance Package as the inflationary outlook evolves. If need be, we will further enhance the Assurance Package to uphold our commitment.”Mr Wong also said there would be an update to the Assurance Package to take into account higher than expected inflation.Ditto for the wealth and sin taxes Associate Professor Lim proposed as alternative revenue levers in his speech on the 2022 Budget statement, which he mentioned again on Thursday.
She had also highlighted Singapore’s other advantages, such as the rule of law and stability, that would grant wealthy individuals peace of mind even if wealth taxes were introduced. But leaving aside the issue of who is the first mover – and without downplaying the hot-button topics of employment, business needs, climate change, and housing – some members raised issues that may be less high-profile but no less vexing.